Episode 76 – Wargaming
Category Archives: War Gaming
The Necromancer
A couple months ago I started planning my Castles & Crusades Campaign and I needed a boss for the end of the adventure. I found this figure at my LCS and knew I had found my villain! The pictures didnt turn out as well as I had hoped, lighting wasnt right ect. So I edited them a bit. Let me know what you think and if you would like an evil wizard of your own here are the details:
Availability: In stock
$9.99
Kensei (War Gaming miniature) Army Update – 2
As requested, here is an update on my progress.
I decided to change up the arrow placement.
Hello everyone, I have been working (in my spare time) to assemble my Army Box and Indiegogo Perks. I started with the exclusives / Heroes and here are the first minis to be assembled and primed.
Here are a few more pics of the pre-assembled figures
After the figures are glued to their bases, I used a silicone adhesive to fill in the gaps in the base. It came in a couple colors, but I chose clear and it is fully printable.
Constructing a Game Table
So every summer I plan a wood working project and this year I went big with this 7′ X 5′ six person gaming table. I had been thinking about a gaming table for a couple years when I came across this youtube video. Now I will say that a table of this size takes a decent budget and a lot of tools to complete. I wont go into specific costs as prices very by material and region. After finding a set of designs another person made based on this table I went to work. (By the way, verify all dimensions before building… I found a few discrepancies that I had to modify during pre-construction)
After reconsidering using Hickory due to cost and staining issues I decided to use a combination of quality and select Pine boards. If you have a home depot, menards or Lowes in your area you can find a good selection of select pine boards at a affordable price, but you will have to spend some time searching through warped planks. I recommend finding a lumber yard that deals exclusively with lumber, pricing will vary but you’ll be happier with what you find.
The first thing I started with where the legs and lower frame, and look! Its level!!
At this stage I laid out some of the surface frame work.
Now all of the main pieces have been cut and partially assembled. Note all of the hinge pieces routed for the hinges.
Boy that looks pretty doesn’t it? well it was a pain in the but to get it to fit that nicely.
As with most things in this world, the hinges came from China and of course they where not a half inch wide. Luckily for me my dad is a machinist and has a milling machine in his shop, so he shaved both sides down to make the hinge actually .50 ” wide.
Here is a shot of the center joint, note the two different plywood sheets. Unhappy with the crap home depot had on hand they gave me a cabinet grade sheet for the same price. Now I wish I had just bought cabinet grade plywood for both ends of the table, but it isnt an issue. Also the board to the back is removable for disassemble of the table.
Assembly of the top section and the fold down desk.
The table completely assembled and nearly ready for stain. Time to sand!
First coat of stain
Too finish the look of the table I decided against doing a poker felt lined insert for the center. Instead I chose a 1/2″ Black Foamboard cut down to fit the 4 X 6′ center playing surface. I hope you enjoyed my project, let me know what you think.
Kensei (Miniature Wargame) – Indiegogo update
As some of you know I contributed to the Kensei (Miniature Wargame) Indiegogo a few months ago and I just found out that my Perk will be shipped to me sometime this week! Here is a run down of what I will receive for my contribution:
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60€Starter Set
One Starter Pack (28 miniatures) + Extra miniature rewards + Free world-wide shipping cost.
101 out of 150 claimed
Kuge – The Courtiers
The Kuge consider themselves the head of government. Together with the emperor, whom they were related to, they made the great decisions on the fate of the Empire. They have dominated the trade routes and the diplomatic relations with distant places for years. Most of the larger cities were under the Kuge families rule also.
The Kuge clan claims that they are direct descendants of the Emperor and, while he was alive, they went with him around the Court in the Imperial City spending most of their time with court intrigues. They were served and maintained by the taxes payed by the Buke and the Sohei from rural areas. Thus, they got rich because of the labours of others.
After the Emperor’s death, their excessive ambition and the arrogance due to their believing themselves superior prevented them from reaching an agreement. Step by step the trail of death and betrayal in the Imperial City forced them to trust nobody. They went back to their respective hometowns and to the lands they ruled from a distance to isolate and protect themselves from the intrigues of the rest of their caste. They built their own palaces at those rural redoubts, where they imitated life in court, and surrounded themselves with vassals who know how captivate them with their praises. There they lived, each of them believing themselves to be the chosen one to succeed to the golden throne.
The Kuge consider themselves to be honorable simply because they say divine blood flows through their veins and they are certain of they do not have to prove their honor. Thus, they will not hesitate to use the most dishonorable methods to reach their goals.
They are experts on intrigue and on the use of ninjas, who seek protection behind darkness to carry out their plans. Moreover, to obtain foreign weapons, they have started to to let Gaijin preachers in the islands, and these bring with them a strange religion based on sacrifice, and weapons from the distant Nishi.
Above is the image of the Kuge starter pack which includes: (5) Katana Samurai, (10) Yari Ashigaru, (5) Yumi Ashigaru, (5) Teppo, (1) Kuge Clan Hero, (1) Shinobi, (1) Samurai Daisho
Along with the starter pack everyone who contributed to the Indiegogo also receive the following 8 miniatures:
I plan on doing an un boxing video when these arrive so every one can take a look at them. So look for it next month! Be sure to check out all the new Creatures and Heroes available over at their website and be sure and stop by their FaceBook page:
Here are a few more Close up pics of these amazing Miniature Warriors and let us know what you think about these Miniatures. Till next time Greenloontern signing off
Miniature wargaming – Kensei
As some of you know I am a huge fan of Zenit Miniatures Kensei Line of Samurai miniatures. I recently contributed to their Indiegogo project in which they raised over 69,000 Euros! You need to stop by the website and check out all of the new fantasy line of Japanese creatures and Demons.
Here are the perks everyone will be receiving for helping them with the crowd funding campaign:
Here is the starter pack I chose:
Zenit Miniatures – Kensei
Kensei is a new miniature wargame inspired in feudal Japan designed for two or more players.
The characters, histories and legends from Kensei ” War in Hymukai” are inspired by the history and mythology of feudal Japan and Asia. Created by Zenit Miniatures
These are the most beautifully sculpted Samurai miniatures I think I have ever seen. They have a really nice variety of military units: Dai-Katana Samurai, No-Dachi Samurai, Yari and Yumi Ashigaru, Naginata Monks, Ashigaru with Teppo(Rifles)
I like the fact that these are sold as sets, the Basic army pack includes 21 miniatures ($65.93/$3.10 per mini) for you to start forming your armies. The other sets contain 5 Samurai each ($26 -$35/ $5 – $7 per mini) Very reasonable considering the quality of sculpts.
Check out the Kensei store for more details
They also have the individual Heroes from each of the clans, these are so cool. I wont go into the rules set for the system, i’ll let you look over the free Kensei Rulebook PDF and decide for yourselves if it will work for your play style. (updated version dec 4th 2012) Let me know what you think.
Also I wanted to mention one section of the rule book that I found very interesting:
Three factions: Before you start to play
you must choose one faction to play your
games. In this game there is a conflict
among three social classes who struggle
to dominate the Himukai Empire; these
are represented by three different factions:
the Buke, the warrior class; the
Kuge, the aristocratic class; and theSohei, the religious class. Choose your
faction and create a clan belonging to
it. In order to give more depth to your
games you can make up the whole history
of your clan, its name or its symbol
(mon); you can also name your characters,
name your Daimyo, establish the
lands they rule over and the internal
relations within the same clan. It all
depends on the depth you want to provide
the game with. Nothing prevents
you from creating a campaign for you
or at your game club; your only limit is
your imagination.
I love this! I love a system that encourages its players to expand the game out side of just war gaming. I can see this system working great in conjunction with a Legend of the Five Rings RPG campaign. Which I plan on starting after I order my Army Box set! So plan on seeing a follow up review down the road. One other item I want to mention is a product by Craft Plast Games who make oriental buildings and bridges specifically for the 28mm Kensei miniatures.
The castle project
So I have decided to complete the entire outer curtain wall surrounding the Keep. So, here is a run down of of the dimensions thus far:
The main gate and wall
Total length: 54.5″
Height (wall):
Height (tower/gate house): 10.5″
The Keep
Height:
Width: 10.75″
Length: 14″
Keep Tower
Height: 14″
Width: 5″
Length: 5.5″
The Keep with an attached kitchen
Here is a shot from the west side of the castle, after looking everything over, im thinking of lowering the corner towers by 1.5″. Possibly even swap them out with 4″ diameter round towers.
Tower Project – Part 4 + additions
Well the tower is nearly finished, I just need to touch up a few miss painted spots. Above is a shot of the tower behind the gate house. Below is a shot from the front of the curtain wall.
Since I was already messing around with the castle I decided to work on the two round towers I started a while back. When these are finished they can be used in place of the square towers along the curtain wall. Then I had another idea! Whats that your asking? Why yes I do think I need new wall sections!
So I set to work making the new curtain wall, but this one will have a tower base built in.
The first step is cutting the outer wall portion (I use two pieces of wood to form the base of the wall). Cutting the top edge of the wall down to .50″ thick by 1.25″ tall. The .50″ Merlons will be cut out with a router later.
Here is the top of the tower section cut in half, this will be added to the card board tube after it has been cut to fit the wall.
The center top section of the wall has been removed to make an opening for the tower base.
Here is the tower section laying against the wall with a loose Merlon placed next to it as a reference point for the final assembly.
Thats it for now, stay tuned for more curtain wall building fun!
Miniature Round-Up
I wanted to take a bit of time to gather a list of sites that carry different miniatures for what ever game you might be playing. So lets get started:
They have a very nice selection of fantasy miniatures and they recently fully funded a kick starter for their Demons and Devils series. FaceBook
We all know Reaper mini’s, we all have a few around the gaming table. They have multiple lines of mini’s. Facebook
This new company has just released its first dwarven miniatures. Angus and Grom! FaceBook
Darksword has the greatest miniatures hands down. They are beautifully sculpted and their lines include Larry Elmore, Kieth Parkinson and George R. R. Martin.
Mantic has a nice range of metel and plastic 20mm mini’s. Their games include: Dreadball, Warpath and Kings of war. They also have a 60 pack of plastic 20mm Zombies!
Makers of Warhammer 40,000 and the Lord of the Rings war games mini’s.
The Geeks Menagerie 