Category Archives: Games

Games, Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

ACTA – Narn vs. Shadow game

Leave a comment

Two of us met and gamed a Narn-Shadow meeting engagement. 

Pictures up on flickr or you can view them as a slide show turn by turn.

Here is the description:

Setup

The Shadows on the right had:
2 young cruisers
2 scouts
The Narn on the left had:

1 Bin'Tak Dreadnought
1 G'Lan cruiser
2 T'Loth Assault Cruisers
1 Dag'Kar Missile Frigate
1 Ka'Toc Battle Destroyer
1 Sho'Kar Light Scout Cruiser

Shadows won initiative and the Narns started setting up first.

Turn 1

The Shadows won initiative and had the Narns move first.

The G'Lan cruiser, Dag'Kar Missile Frigate, Ka'Toc Battle Destroyer held back while the T'Loths, Bin'Tak and the scout advanced.

The Shadows advanced at max on all fronts. However, the two scouts were
out of range and saw no action this turn. One Shadow cruiser
concentrated its fire on the vanguard T'Loth, while the other attacked
the Bin'Tak. Both Narn ships took significant damage. The Bin'Tak
remained in the battle, but the T'Loth was immobilized and one crew
point shy of having a skeleton crew.

The vanguard T'Loth attacked the closest Shadow scout, but wasn't able
to destroy the scout. The Bin'Tak and Dag'Kar loosed the energy mines
and other long range armament, but aside from damaging the scout
closest to the vanguard T'Loth, the Shadows took little damage.

The Narn scout reduced the stealth on a scout, but didn't much damage.

Turn 2

The Narn won initiative and had the Shadows move first.

One Shadow cruiser attempted to move into a flanking position on the
Bin'Tak, while the other moved to engage the undamaged T'Loth and
G'Lan. The damaged scout flanked the immobile T'Loth. The other scout
played chicken with the Narn scout and ended up getting hit in the
rear, but no damage result owing to the Shadow scout's shields.

The G'Lan cruiser, and the mobile T'Loth moved up next to the ailing
T'Loth as did the Ka'Toc Battle Destroyer. The Dag'Kar Missile Frigate
held back while the Bin'Tak rotated in place to engage the Shadow
cruiser. Both traded blows with one another, with the Shadow cruiser
received scratches while the Bin'Tak took it on the chin, but still
focused it fire.

The damaged Shadow scout finally dispatched the immobile T'Loth while
the other Shadow cruiser concentrated on the G'Lan and gave it quite a
bruising including critical hits that left it immobilized.

The Dag'Kar and Ka'Toc attacked the Shadow scouts, but did not take either down.

The Narn fighters did engage the Shadow fighters, but with the local
advantage in numbers, the Shadows prevailed in the two dogfights.
Amazingly, a Shadow scout was able to avoid significant damage from a
cloud of Narn fighters.

Turn 3

The Shadows won initiative and had the Narns move first.

One Shadow cruiser continued its attempt to flank the Bin'Tak, and
positioned itself just to the side of the Bin'Tak and out of range. The
other Shadow cruiser continued to engage the G'Lan.

The Shadow damaged scout turned its attention on the Ka'Toc and was
able to reduce it to a skeleton crew in the first shot. The other scout
focused its attentions on the G'Lan.

The Dag'Kar Missile Frigate, its energy mines fully loaded, attacked
the Shadow scout attacking the G'Lan. The Narn scout sailed behind the
Shadow ships. The remaining T'Loth contemplated opening a jump gate
next turn.

Over all, while the scenario was balanced points wise, the Shadows were
able to out maneuver the Narns and were well on their way to winning
the day. Both players felt that the Narns needed more ships to balance
the game out better.

Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

Torvalus Dark Knives Complete

Leave a comment

I completed the Torvalus Dark Knives a week or more ago, but I finally got around to photographing them.

Torvalus Dark Knives

You can find a larger version on Flickr.

How I made them:

  1. primed them with a black spray primer
  2. painted them with two coats of Floquil NATO Black
  3. painted the three engines with Floquil USSR Underside Blue and a small sharp brush.  I used the Floquil NATO Black where ever I painted beyond the lines.
  4. painted the lights with Floquil’s Railroad Signal Red and a small sharp brush.
  5. finally, I sprayed them with Testors dullcote and then mounted them.

The Torvalus are:

A race of Gamblers and tricksters, roughly resembling a meter tall transparent protozoan covered in scillia. They, and the Kirishiac, are the only First Ones not to ascend into energy beings, mostly because of philosophy. They bet on everything, what race will exterminate which species, whether this star will blow up in so many years, stuff like that. They maintained fairly good relations with their inferior middle-borns, but
often as not posing as someone else.Therefore, they invested enormous amounts of research into stealth. Their ships can hide from any of the First One’s advanced sensors, even from the Walkers and the Triad, using what is called the “Shading Field”. It works as damage prevention, as well. They can create sensor ghosts, fully realistic projections, they have a microjump system called a Transverse Drive that bypasses intervening space by means
other than hyperspace.

Their weaponry is rather straightforward, using a variety of highly advanced lasers. Their drone fighters are among the best the First Ones make, capable of inflicting more damage than any but the Triad Order aspect Sereph super-heavies. Fighting the Torvalus is like fighting ghosts, even among the first ones.

[From Agammemnon at http://forum.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=78015 ]

Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

For a little color

Leave a comment

Been a bit tied up with work and family.  Managed to get all of the Shadow Cruisers built.  Planning to base the White Stars this weekend.

Next up I thought I would try my hand at painting some of the triremes.  My research turned up that the hulls of the Athenian triremes and the quinqueremes were probably made with fir.  The Phoenician triremes and the heptares likely with cedar.

I visited my local woodworking store to get samples of each type of wood.  They didn't have any fir, but being the knowledgeable folks they are, they did have a book with pictures of different types of wood.  The cedar looked like pine, only darker and more red.  The fir looked lighter and less red than the cedar, but still darker than a pine.  I figure I can make a wash using a light brown and a bit of red for the cedar and water it down further to make the fir color.  This is of course on top of the tan I sprayed on the primed ships.

By Will Alone, Current Affairs, Thailand

Summary of events in Thailand

Leave a comment

A great deal has happened in Thailand since I last posted.  The anti-government protests continued into early December with violence by both anti- and pro-government supporters (1, 2, 3).  In November, anti-government protesters escalated their efforts by taking over Thailand's two main airports. 

In early December, the Thai Constitutional court banned the new prime minister and several ruling parties for electoral fraud.  As a result the anti-government protesters called off their takeover of the airports.  Now that the larger parties were banned, the Democrat Party, one of the opposition parties, formed a new government with Abhisit Vejjajiva as the prime minister.  The anti-government protests were suspended though its organizers have vowed to renew demonstrations.

The supporters of the banned parties expanded their non-violent protests and have blockaded the parliament building.  They are trying to prevent the new government from operating and are calling for new elections.

Miniatures, When Imagination Fails

Painting progress: FA Whitestars & Shadow Cruisers/Scouts

3 Comments

Over the last few days I have been able to finish up a bunch of the Babylon 5 miniatures.  The sixteen AOG Fleet Action scale Whitestars are done.  The three Shadow scouts are done (I glued them together either before priming or after.)  The Shadow cruisers just await gluing. 

A bit on how I painted them.

For the whitestars I:

  1. primed them in gray,
  2. painted them with two coats of Testors Acryl silver paint,
  3. made up a wash of Floquil German Mauve (i.e. purple) and water (I forgot the ratio, but it was mostly water), and washed the entire miniature since they are small.  If it looked like there was too much purple, I would use the brush to better distribute it.  I put two coats on the top and one on the bottom.  The effect is to give it a splotchy purple/silver pattern,
  4. painted the weapons in gunmetal,
  5. finally, after a night or two of drying, I sprayed them with Testors glosscote.

For the Shadow ships I:

  1. primed them in black,
  2. painted them with two coats of Floquil NATO Black,
  3. made a wash of the Testors Acryl Silver (16 drops) and water (80 drops) and spread it over the miniatures using the same technique as the whitestars.  I coated both sides twice.  As a result the miniatures have bits of silver sprinkled over the black that looks similar to what the ships are supposed to look like   [Note: Looking at them now, I think I either needed to add more silver paint
    to the wash or do more washes.  The silver shows up better when the
    light isn't quite as bright as daylight.],
  4. finally, after drying, I sprayed them with Testors glosscote.

I like the way they came out and hope to post pictures before the weekend is over.

Now that I have gotten a hang of the wash technique, I am looking forward to starting work on some of the ancient Greek and Phoenician triremes I primed and sprayed with a tan base coat.