Not much has changed since the last haul report: there have been no face to face games and no wargame shows either but apparently, this didn’t stop me from buying new stuff.
The first item, TravelBattle from Perry Miniatures, was a real surprise. Though it’s a very interesting period, I have never considered buying Napoleonic minis and I was also sure that I would focus on 28mm and 15mm, with a few 6mm pieces as a rare exception, but after reading an article about this game, it looked very engaging. One single box that has everything you need: terrain boards, troops and a rulebook. After reading a few reviews, it quickly became irresistible, mainly because of the quick and simple but fun to play rules. The size of the minis is 8mm, which is a scale I have never seen before and there are probably not too many accessories for it on the market, which is in a way a blessing in disguise: it will stop me from expanding this into a massive collection with dozens of extra units.
I also bought a big pile of books from a friend:
• Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics – DCC is an exciting and gritty RPG, where you start with zero level characters, where magic is equally dangerous both for the wielder, their party and their opponents, where class and race are one and the same and where critical hits are devastating. DCC is a classic low-fantasy setting, while MCC is the far future, post-apocalyptic equivalent, with Manimals, Plantients and Mutants as playable races.
• Twilight: 2000, Merc: 2000 and Referee’s Screen – Twilight: 2000 is a military survival RPG in the post World War III era, while Merc: 2000 is an alternative setting for modern-day mercenaries. Considering the age of these books (both were published in 1990), I was lucky to find them in really good condition.
• Arkadia – It’s a concise, less than hundred pages DnD 5e setting, based on the history and mythology of the Ancient Greece. Both the races and the classes are aligned to this world, and each of them has interesting adjustments and options – like the hoplite and the gladiator – I also found a few nice, fresh ideas like the fae-hybrid Phaedrans who can be Satyr, Siren, Centaur, Gorgon or Harpy.
• Odyssey of the Dragonlords Player’s Guide, Map pack and DM’s Screen – Odyssey is like the bigger, more detailed and more complex alternative to Arkadia. It’s also inspired by the Ancient Greek history and mythology, but it’s in a completely different league with its almost 500 pages. Similarly to Arkadia, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Medusas, Nymphs, Satyrs and Sirens are playable races, but you have far more background information about them in this game and all the classes are cleverly updated too.
I wrote about Hardwired the cyberpunk game in an earlier post. It’s flexible and lean but has everything you need to play a fast-paced game with real tactical considerations. It works in any other settings too and I have imagined a desert city in the near future or in a space colony, where old and modern meet – obviously in 15mm. With these in mind, I bought the following:
• Colonial security and Police SWAT teams, Tech Ninjas from GZG – The Ninjas will be excellent Razors in Hardwired! I also bought two of the eight-wheeler fire support vehicles, quad walkers, autocannons and some of the riders too.
• A 6×4 feet Drylands gaming mat and a tarmac road stripe from Deep-Cut Studio – These mats are available in PVC, mousepad material and cloth. I decided to buy the cloth version mainly because of the light weight and portability, and it suits my 10/15mm desert buildings very well. The road is made of the mousepad material, so it doesn’t slip and lays flat on the mat. The set comes with a 6 feet straight piece and two half-circles.
• To add more futuristic elements, I also bought a few buildings, street furniture and accessories from Brigade – The buildings are of a similar footprint as the ones from Flames of War and the street furniture and the accessories will give me plenty of options to customize them. It’s worth mentioning that the buildings are solid pieces of resin, they are surprisingly robust and heavy (“Heavy is good…” 😊). I also bought the new three-wheelers and some vehicle accessories (cranes, dozer blades, etc…). While there is a massive range of fighting vehicles available on the 15mm market, the supply of civilian ones is very limited, so I was pleased to see these quirky little cars.
• Walls, furniture, petrol pumps, wrecked cars from Peter Pig – some of them are WWII, but I can imagine them in a low-tech future environment too.
Apparently, I still love the Fighting Fantasy books, so I bought the recently published Chrystal of Storms by Rhianna Pratchett. There are loads of controversies about this book: a new author, a previously not canonised area on Titan, a cover art that seems to be targeted at the younger readers… But as the old adage goes, don’t judge a book by its cover.
Last but not at least, I purchased supplies and accessories as well:
• Army Painter drybrush set – They seem to be the budget-friendly alternatives to the Artis Opus Series D brushes (Update: see the comparison of the two sets)
• Army Painter Battlefields Basing Set
• Pearlescent paints: Green Stuff World’s Colorshift and Turo Dork’s Turboshift – Pearlescent paints have been out for a while, but I have never tried them before. I’m really curious to see how they work.
• Dark Yellow pigment from Vallejo – I really need a matching pigment for the desert mat. – Update: this is how it worked.
You may have spotted that I haven’t posted anything about my works recently. The reason is that I have been really busy with a secret project: the Christmas gifts for my nieces. I built them something special that I have never done before, so watch this space for a detailed report.