Tortles In The Dust: Game 8

 OK, so after the absolutely punishing last game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands, I was anxious to go ahead and play again. Campaign Turn 15 was a Resting Up kind of thing, with no activities outside of Ectanaba. We got some rations from the goodwill of the locals, Vashti, Hamada, and Plodo all healed one turn, and some hanging out with the townsfolk didn't yield anything new. But Hamada was back on her feet for the next Turn, so we could do some adventuring then. Campaign Turn 16 started with a Town Crier offering a contract, which we took. We helped the Town Guard again, tried some more mingling without effect, and then proceeded with the contract; we would need to Ride Patrol three times within the next five game turns. So, it was off to ride patrol! We encountered a wanderer who saw something odd. We went to the Unexplored Location and upon exploring it, got involved in a Site Battle against six Organized Robbers. There would be three Glimmers and six Unpleasant Flora on the table as well. There were also gusts of wind, meaning ranged attacks would only hit on a "6" and visibility was limited to 15." Plog The Elder made the First Move, and picked up a Glimmer in the process; the Site Reaction table roll was 07, so nothing extra special would be happening during the battle.

In the First Turn, we split into three groups; Quicktoes went right to investigate an Exploration marker, Weppi and Plog went up the center, and Plog tried to scout the marker on the hill using his Mystic magic, but failed to cast the spell. The trio of Tundaline, Rukacta, and Hamada moved towards the marker in the pond. The Robbers in the building on the hill went to patrol a marker in the backfield, while the other group started to patrol towards the pond marker.

On Turn Two, Plog The Elder managed to scout the Exploration Marker in the building on the hill; it was a Treasure Trap! He was now Wounded, but received Loot. Weppi moved up the center. Quicktoes was almost to the marker on the right. The first group of Robbers made their way to their target marker, and the other group made it to the pond. One took a shot at Hamada, but missed. That gust of wind saved her! Hamada made contact with a bad guy, and promptly killed him. Rukacta moved up behind her, and Tundaline scouted the marker in the pond; it was Loot!

Turn Three had a bad initiative roll... none of Our Heroes would activate before the Robbers. The first group turned their patrolling towards the same Marker that Quicktoes was closing in on, and the skirmish by the pond got heated: the archer shot Tundaline and Wounded her, while the other Robber took Hamada out of action. Tundaline and Rukacta both tried fighting that Robber, but only managed to wound him. Quicktoes made it to the Exploration marker; it was a Lethal Trap, and the halfling hero went out of action. Weppi began moving around the hill to intercept the Robbers coming down that way.

On Turn Four, Rukacta and Tundaline finally managed to take down the melee-armed Robber, leaving them within easy attack range of the archer. The other group of Robbers spotted Plog The Elder and turned towards him; the archer within the group took a shot but missed the venerable tortle. Weppi moved up the hill ready to engage the Robbers. Plog then ran down the hill, leaving Weppi to mop up the remaining bad guys. Not that there is no picture for Turn Four; nor did I flip the Turn Marker Die at the end of the turn.

In the Fifth turn (Turn Four in the pictures,) Rukacta and Tundaline killed the archer by the pond. The archer on the hill shot Weppi, taking her out of action. The other two Robbers attacked Plog the Elder, who managed a Parry for the first time ever, but was unable to harm the bad guys in return.

Turn Six (Turn Five in the pictures) started with Plog The Elder moving towards the entry edge and casting his Barrier wall of fire. The archer on the hill took a shot at him, and this time found his mark against the Mystic; Plog The Elder went down. The remaining two Robbers headed towards Rukacta and Tundaline over by the pond.

On what would be the last Turn of the games (Turn Six in the pictures,) the three remaining Robbers made for the pond; one connected with Tundaline and died for his trouble. In the Tracking Phase, there were only two bad guys left so they ran away. Tundaline was wounded, Rukacta was tired, and everyone else was down for the count. They decided to check on their friends and head out.

And what of our fallen Heroes? Weppi and Plog The Elder were both just knocked out, and Tundaline and Quicktoes both suffered damaged equipment. It could have been a lot worse! We checked out our loot, and we now have Birde Maille and Bright Maille. We also found the Remains Of A Victim, so the next time we are in Istahkr we can return them to the family. We wagered 4 Adventure to make a Milestone roll to promote Hamada to Hero; a roll of 3 succeeded! Finally, News Travelled that there was a virulent disease running through Ectanaba, and we would spend the next Turn in Camp.

Regarding the game itself, I'm not a fan of the Site Battle/Delve dynamic. Using the ruined city instead of the dungeon tiles made it more palatable. I was amazed at the enemy archery rolls; Tundaline was wounded, and both Weppi and Plog The Elder were taken down by arrows. This is the second game in a row where the ranged attacks of the bad guys have been decisive. Now that everyone is fully healed, I really need to finish painting the models for Vashti and Hamada. Plodo and Hamada will probably be on the field together during the next game. I'll see you then!

Tortles In The Dust: Game 7

 OK, so it's been a rough week at work. Which is funny, because we had a short work week due to Labor Day on Monday. But it was still pretty stressful, so I decided that there would be beer tonight. And beer was had. But, as Debbie Deb once sang, weekends are made for fun. So I decided on a game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands tonight. Except the beer made me lazy. So, I had some coffee after the beer to perk me up a little. And hopped up on beer and coffee (the beer will be relevant later in this story,) I proceeded to set up the game. I do this thing where I prepare the paperwork for each game days or weeks ahead of time, so I already had the scenario and opponents worked out and ready to go.

Our Heroes were in the vicinity of the town of Ectanaba, and would be fighting off another incursion of the Oldest Kin. We had to get some more information about them, and this fight might be the opportunity to do that. The scenario would be a Meeting Engagement, with the objective of Scout The Area. We would be facing six Ravager Brood, including two with javelins (represented by bow-armed figures tonight) and then led by an additional sergeant. Both sides deployed 22" away from each other, or 7" in from their respective table edges. One of the Scout tokens to be investigated was close to the enemy deployment line, so this might turn out to be a tough scenario to win.

The first Turn was the usual rushing towards each other. The Oldest Kin's javelins only have a range of 9", and Our Heroes have no ranged weapons whatsoever. Plog The Elder tried to cast "Foresee" to give us an extra turn to contact the Scout markers, but didn't get it off.

Turn Two saw the first combat: a javelin took down Rukacta (I forgot his Harness Of Vengeance should have killed the javelineer as well, thank you beer,) Tundaline engaged a Ravager, Weppi killed a Ravager, and Quicktoes climbed onto the roof to investigate a Scout marker. No Ravagers fled due to the death of one of their number.

On the third Turn, a javelin knocked Plog The Elder out of play, Tundaline survived a javelin attack but still took a wound, she wounded another Ravager in return, both Hamada and Weppi each killed a Ravager, and Quicktoes leapt from the roof to circle behind the skirmish to head towards the next Scout marker. We now had two Heroes down, and the Ravagers had lost three of the Brood. Still, they did not break.

The Fourth turn: Weppi and Hamada both killed a Ravager each, while Tundaline was skewered by a javelin and now out of action. Another javelin found its mark and caused Hamada a wound. Quicktoes was making a dash for that second Scout marker.

Next up was the Fifth turn. or was it the Sixth? Did I turn the Turn Marker die? The beer was starting to hit hard! I decided it must be turn Six and to check the pictures later. As it happened, it was only turn Five. Hmmph! Anyways... Weppi killed one of the two remaining javelin-armed Ravagers, the other took down Hamada, and Quicktoes pounced on that last Scout Marker. The objective had been achieved, but could we Hold The Field? We would certainly try!

So, on what I thought was turn Seven but was really only turn Six, Weppi and Quicktoes dispatched the last Ravager. Game over, we Held The Field. Also, four out of six of Our Heroes were bleeding in the dust and needed their disposition assessed. Would they survive?

It is important to note at this point that I spent FOUR Story Points for re-rolls during the course of this game (and only two of those re-rolls resulted in successes.) It was a tough one, and that's something I have been trying to get for a while. And the javelins, oh the javelins, they seem like such weenie weapons but they took down three of Our Heroes. We did gain six Adventure Points for our trouble. Rukacta was just knocked out. Tundaline was DEAD! But the judicious use of our one Spring Vial revived her without injury. We've been saving that since the first campaign and finally needed it. Plog The Elder was just knocked out. Hamada was Moderately Injured, and would need to spend a campaign turn recovering. We managed to loot some partial armor and a shield, and as an Unusual Find we wound up with a bag of gold. Even though we achieved the Objective, we failed the roll to add an Unexplored Location to the Campaign Map. Despite, or possibly due to, the game being very tough and down to the wire for the Objective (although I had an extra Turn I didn't know about,) I really enjoyed it. Having games that feel like a steamroller all the time gets boring, and it was nice to have reasonably tough opponents who made things hard.

Sea Peoples Chariot General

OK, so I finished up my 15mm Sea Peoples chariot. It is the General element for my DBA v1.0 Sea Peoples army. When I went to research the colors, I found ideas all over the spectrum. I went with a muted scheme based on the one from the Essex Miniatures website.

Sea Peoples Ox-Carts

OK, so Kurt and I have started playing the old first edition of De Bellis Antiquitatus. I haven't played since my San Diego days. We are doing the Biblical period, as he already has New Kingdom Egyptians and I have Libyans. I thought it would be fun to start a new army. Just 12 stands of 15mm figures, under $40 for the whole bunch of them. I chose Sea Peoples as they are good opponents not only for the Egyptians but Kurt's proposed Myceneans as well.

Well, anyways, I finished the first two elements of my Sea Peoples army, a pair of Ox-Carts.

Tortles In The Dust: Game 6

 After a long spell, I have played another game of my Tortles In The Dust campaign for Five Leagues From The Borderlands. I still have not finished painting my miniature of Vashti, so a stand-in was used again. I think I am going to need to buy some new brushes before I finish her, as there is some fine detail my current brushes just can't quite get. Plodo was still Healing, so Our Heroes consisted of Weppi, Tundaline, Plog The Elder, Rukacta, Quicktoes, and Vashti for this encounter.

As Our Heroes were still In Camp, they Lived Off The Land and Rukacta did some Training. Plodo Healed another turn, only three turns to go before he can fight again! Our Research yielded a Hidden Monster Lair; we wagered five Adventure Points with a roll of two. We located it! Per the Scouting roll, it was in the same map area as the town of Ectanaba. Our travel there was uneventful.

The Monster Lair required some investigation, and Quicktoes took on this responsibility. There were three tokens to investigate, and he revealed all three; the first was the Ogre-Golem, as yet unaware of his diminutive presence, while after that he found some of the construct's tracks by some palm trees, and finally he discovered a captive, who would fight alongside Our Heroes against this aberration. Once his work was done, Quickktoes signaled the rest of the warband, which then moved towards the monster.

The combat was fast and bloody: Vashti, Rukacta, and the captive all went out of action in the first turn, while the Ogre-Golem sustained three wounds to itself. The second turn saw Weppi and Tundaline unable to damage the thing, but wit the timely arrival of Quicktoes the halfling was able to dispatch the monster. Somewhere in there, two Story Points were spent to re-roll some dice.

After the dust settled, it was time to inventory both injuries and rewards. Rukacta's Harness Of Vengeance was damaged, Vashti took a Moderate wound and would need three turns of Healing (she and Plodo will be on their feet again at the same time,) and Hamada, the captive, was merely knocked out. She joined the Warband as a Loyal Follower. We discovered Thief's Tools, a coil of rope, and a Scout's Cloak in the foyer behind the Ogre-Golem.

This was a fast and brutal game. I am generally not a fan of the "Fight The Monster" scenarios because it usually winds up with the whole warband surrounding the beast and it becomes a dice-rolling exercise. The one thing that really saved this battle for Our Heroes was the Counter-Attack granted by Weppi's Warspear. That was where half the damage to the Ogre-Golem came from (Rukacta's Harness of Vengeance was another, and Quicktoes got in a lucky strike.) So I've got two more Monster Lairs to go through for the campaign victory conditions, as well as any that come up from Quests or Contracts. I might think of how to tweak the rules to make it a bit more interesting.

DBA Desert Camp

 OK, so my buddy Kurt dragged me back into De Belis Antiquitatis. Teribel news. I love this game. We are playing the original 1st edition of the game. I took the papercraft file for the Desert Tent and scaled it to 50% to make this encampment for my Early/Late Libyan army. I think mybe it should have been scaled at 30%, but it's done and usable. It is on a 60mm x 80mm base.

Big Lizard In My Backyard

 OK, so my Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign wound up needing a Ravenous Lizard as an opponent. After reviewing my collection, I had nothing suitable for use and so I rolled up a different encounter. But the need for a possible future Ravenous Lizard remained, and I saw an opportunity at Dollar Tree in the form of a small Jurassic Park toy Allosaurus. It wasn't quite an Allosaurus, it had a snaky droopy tail instead of the long stiff one assumed by modern paleontology. But it was perfect for a fantasy desert giant lizardy thing.

So the first step was removing it from the toy base and putting it on a proper 40mm round gaming base. I prepped the base first, and then secured the toy using a pin and Krazy Glue. The tail didn't want to glue down quite right, but with a little work I got it to look "mostly" right.

Next, I primed both the toy and the base with two coats of black gesso applied by brush. I use the Bob Ross brand because it is economical, but any brand would have sufficed.

I painted the belly and the inner thighs an off white, and the rest of the Ravenous Lizard a neutral brown. The inside of the mouth was done in dark red, and the eyes and claws were blocked in dark brown.

 With the colors blocked on, the next step was applying the Shading Wash. I make mine from acrylic floor polish and artist's inks.

Once the shading wash was dry, I gave all the colors a three=stage highlight, did the eyes in a dull orange, and flocked the base. I wasn't sure the spots would turn out well, but overall they did. If I were to do ot again, I would do smaller, solid spots on the head in a symmetrical pattern.