Drunk Quest kicked my ass. I’m drunk right now. If you play games, and drink, then Drunk Quest is a game you need to get. The authors and artists and play testers were all there at Kingdom-con, and they ensured a good time was had by all. They were all really cool people.
I also had a great time playing Flames Of War, but the write-up for that will have to wait until tomorrow. As I said, Drunk Quest kicked my ass. I sleep now.
Yesterday (Friday April 5, 2013) I went to Kingdom-con here in San Diego. I’ll be going back later today.
Kingdom-con is a small gaming convention that I found out about from a newsletter I picked up at a local game store. It’s being held 5 miles from my house, so I really have no excuse to not attend. It’s $50 at the door for a 3 day pass. They have a large wargaming room, mostly Warhammer and historics, a central lobby with several tables of miniature games, and another large room with open gaming, 10 vendors, and a game library. The game library has hundreds of games anyone can check out and play.
So, here’s my pics and comments:
I played a demo game of Infinity. I’d never played before, but it was easy to pick up. We played 4 figures to a side, and the game took about 30 minutes. I won. 🙂 The figures were really nice. Officially 28mm, they seemed bigger, but I didn’t measure them.
I also played a demo game of Drunk Quest. It was 2 in the afternoon, so I just drank water. It’s like Munchkin with drinking. It was super fun, and I bought a copy. There’s a tournament with real drinking tonight. I might join. 🙂
I picked up a set of Irondice. They are “silver-plated miniature white metal and covered with a translucent paint”. They come with rules for a dice game, but I just bought them because they look freakin’ cool. I’m just going to use them as regular D6 for gaming.
For every event / demo / etc you participate in, you get a token. At any time, you can cash your tokens in for prizes. It’s like skee-ball!
This part really made me laugh. Right there in the rules, right on your badge, it says, “Please remember to stay clean and shower.” 🙂
In closing, here’s some pics I took in the wargaming room. I have nothing left to say, except I’m going back today. I plan to attend a demo of Flames Of War.
I’ve finished my Gruntz army (post coming soon) and I am painting some “character” figures, still in 15mm Sci-Fi, in anticipation of my Traveller 5 rulebook arriving from the Kickstarter. I ordered a bunch of civilians, aliens, robots, etc from both GZG and Khurasan.
One set from Khurasan is their “15mm Female Auxiliaries in Light Armour with energy weapons (x5)” (TTC-3008).
Here they are cleaned up, before painting. There was minimal flash, and just some very minor mold lines to take care of. They cleaned up very quickly.
And here they are done. They went pretty quickly, since the body-suits are a solid color. I spent more time on the hair than anything else. The painting & wash was done in an evening.
I did want to do something different for the bases. Up until now I’ve just done the standard “ground with sand” and maybe some grass. I did my best to avoid the “pitcher’s mound” and make the base level, but it’s tough without removing the figure’s built in base.
So, I went with a kind of polished concrete look, with some industrial stuff on it. I made it shiny with Citadel’s ‘Ardcoat.
I’m pretty happy with how they came out. I used spackling for the base, as I’ve been doing with my Gruntz army. I think next time I’ll try Green Stuff. I just got some to make sandbag terrain with, and I’m eager to try it out.
I’m somewhat new to miniature wargaming. I say “somewhat” because I dabbled in wargaming as a teen in the 1980’s, and I am only now getting back to it. (That’s the “Again” part of the title). As you can imagine, things have changed a lot since then.
I read a lot of Sci-Fi, and I was working my way through David Webber’s Honor Harrington series, which contains a crap-load of space battles. I thought that might be a fun genre for a computer game. I was searching the web for a good computer space battle game, and not having a whole lot of luck, when I came across the rules for Full Thrust.
Wow, I thought. Space battle miniatures. Sounds cool. I bought Ground Zero Game’s Full Thrust Intro Fleet Double – 2 sets of 8 ships, from different factions. I painted them and played a few games with a friend. Super fun.
That led to 15mm Sci-Fi ground combat. I read the free Stargrunt II rules, and heard a lot about Gruntz, and ended up buying that and getting a bunch of minis from GZG, Rebel Miniatures and Khurasan.
Now I’m painting up a storm, making terrain, etc.
Here’s the very first 15mm Sci-Fi I ever painted, before and after. These were painted in February, 2013.
So, I guess you can blame David Webber for writing those books, and my co-worker Matt who turned me on to them, for getting me back into miniature wargaming after all these years. 🙂
Spaceship minis really need to be stored with the base attached. I put hours into cleaning, assembling and painting these miniatures, I want to make sure they stay safe in storage and transport. I’ve used camera cases like this one in the past to store microphones. I bet it would be great for miniatures, too. Dedicated miniature cases can be very expensive. This case is $34.99 on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HJTK5Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00 There are many other sizes, also.
The inside of the case. It has some dividers I won’t use, a set of keys to lock it, and a shoulder strap. There are 3 layers of foam, a thin top and bottom layer, and a thick middle layer that is perforated for easy cutting.
I’ve removed the top layer of foam. I put it back before I close the case and put them away. The middle layer of foam is perforated, so it’s easy to cut along the perforations with a butter knife. I would not suggest using a sharper knife, because then you might cut the foam instead of the perforations. I measured the space I needed for each ship. In this case it was a 3×4 rectangle.
It fits. If you accidentally cut too much, glue it back with wood or elmers glue.
I cut all the spaces for the ESU fleet. In some cases, I put a chuck of foam back for the front or back of the ship to rest on, but still allow the base to go all the way down. You can use wood glue to hold them in, or just friction.
Here’s the whole ESU Intro Fleet
Here’s both Intro Fleets. As you can see, there’s still plenty of room for more ships.