Monday, July 11, 2016

Hellboy and Scooby Doo vs. Zombies


I’ve been playing in a Savage Worlds/Realms of Chthulhu campaign (nominally) every other Thursday for the last year and a half. Or rather, I should say, I WAS. The campaign – the classic Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign – wrapped up at the end of spring. We thought we’d take a break from role-playing over the summer and I suggested I’d run some miniature games. We’ve missed a few Fridays since the campaign ended, but we did get in a game of Frostgrave in June sometime (which I never got to writing a report about) and this past Friday I ran a game of Fear and Faith/Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters game.

I gave the players the Scooby Gang and Hellboy and said they somehow met up in a town over run with zombies (because… these things… they happen…). And they had to get off the opposite edge of the table (where the Mystery Machine was parked) so they could get out of town safely.

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)



Setting up the table.

The Boy, who hasn’t’ been playing in the Friday evening games, joined us for this evening.


“So, it looks like the entire town has been overrun by zombies… you kids got any wheels or anything?”

“You mean like the Mystery Machine?”

“What the hell is a ‘Mystery Machine’?”

“It’s, like, the name of our van.”

“Yeah, a van sounds good, where’s it at?”

“Well it’s parked down there at the other end of Crossley Street”

“Great….”


“Romries! Rikes Raggy!” [sound effect of dog taking off]

Scooby Doo kicked things off with THREE successes and with his long move nearly made it clear across the


The rest moved up a but – with some zombies getting reactions and moving into contact with them.

The zombies in Fear and Faith are MUCH more active than in Song of Blades and Heroes!! I think it SoBH they have a Quality of 5 or 6, in Fear and Faith they have Q4+ - now there were a LOT of them so the individual ones I didn’t want to cause any turn-overs, so I usually only used one activation die, but with the largetr groups that I moved as mobs I would roll two – or three if they were the last to go – and then really moved – even WITH a short move!


Fred and Shaggy encounter some zombies as they arrive at the intersection.


Daphne and Velma raced past Fred and Shaggy and straight through the intersection.


Two Zombies shambled up to Velma, but Daphne managed to give them the slip!


Once the Mob got going things started really going down hill. Shaggy got eaten.

On one turn Hellboy had three action. He used two to do a Power Blow with the Right Hand of Doom (classed as a Heavy Melee Weapon) and crush a zombie… but fell down. We said he slipped on Shaggy’s guts (who had been right nest to him) luckily with the remaining action, he got right back up.


Sadly the two zombies that attacked Velma over powered her and ate her brains. They were probably delicious…. Daphne was, like, totally sad… but she continued on her way. Someone had to escape!


At this point Fred beat a hasty retreat back around the buildings – some fo the zombies chased off after him, the others surrounded Hellboy and brought him down through sheer weight of numbers (and some intensely unlucky die rolls on The Boy’s part!)


Daphne and Scooby Doo made it off table to the Mystery Machine. Fred was so close… sooooo close… but didn’t’ quite make it…

The game was super lots of fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve played any of the Ganesha Games. I had wanted to introduce the Friday night gamers to the system and it seemed to go over okay (despite the fact that most of them died…). We had talked about playing another game of Frostgrave… but four player games of Frostgrave just take FOR-EVAR to play and I wanted to have an early evening…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to the Great War Canadians – hopefully! I have to do some cleaning in the basement as I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a bunch of work done on the Terrain next week while the kids are out for the day all week at a Kayaking “camp”. 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

22e Battalion (Canadien Français)

Going a little overboard with the posts today. I had a relatively kid-free day and thought I'd get caught up on some pots... I have one more to do (a  report of Friday evening’s Fear and Faith/Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters game) but I think that one might have to wait until tomorrow.

And finally… the first of the 5th Brigade battalions – all of which will be made up of figures from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design Company. I like these figures. They lack a respirator case, but I can probably let that go. The figures are very dynamic and available with 14 different head options! I ordered a few of the 4-figure packs (Officers, Sergeants, Lewis-gunners, Bombers) with stuff other than the plain old Brodie helmet - thinking I'd mix and match some of the head options into the battalions. I kind of regret doing so now – as each battalion now has a dude with a bandaged head and a guy in a gas hood. I wouldn’t have minded the gas hood so much if they actually had respirator cases and were wearing the helmet over top – the plain gas hood just sort of sticks out a bit. Ah, well…

The 22nd Battalion, CEF was largely recruited from French Canadians in Quebec.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


22e  Battalion (Canadien Français)



Detail of the formation patch. The blue patch of the Second Division surmounted by a red circle (red for the middle brigade of the division and the circle for the senior battalion within the brigade).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully a report of Friday evening’s Fear and Faith/Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters game. 

16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish), CEF


The 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) was originally recruited from four different Canadian Highland militia units. The 16th was commanded by LCol. Cyrus Peck at Vimy Ridge, who went on to win the Victoria Cross for actions on the  Drocourt-Quéant  Line in 1918.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish), CEF

This, and 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada) are made up of the very first miniature I ever modeled and cast. I made the master from Milliput and they were cast by my friend John. The officer and piper figures I converted from spare riflemen (and I somehow got the piper backwards!? Teh bag is under the wrong arm and drones over the wrong shoulder!? What was I thinking!?)


Detail of the formation patch and half-assed attempt at a Seaforth tartan. The red patch of the First Division is surmounted by a blue square (blue for the junior brigade of the division and the square for the junior battalion within the brigade).


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

22nd Battalion (Canadien Francais) and a Fear & Faith/Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters game report.

Snipers, Casualties and Boardgames


This weekend my friend John hosted a Commands & Colours day and invited me and The Boy. I think he has at least one copy of all of the Commands & Colours series of games (in some cases, I think he might have MORE than one copy!?)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


The Boy and I started out with the introductory scenario for Battlelore - the fantasy version of the game. The Boy was a bit disappointed that it was just humans vs. humans and there were no fantastical creatures involved or magic... (different elements are introduced one at a time through the scenarios).

Afterwards we played a game of Commands & Colours: Ancients


Others were playing Great War and Memoir ‘44. We left around supper time – just as the pizza the others ordered arrived. Games continued on into the evening…


I finished these snipers from 1st Corps up this past week, but didn’t really have time to post them. Truthfully I wouldn’t have taken much time to post two pics, but I was waiting for something else to post them with… and didn’t want to post them with the posts on complete German units I’ve done this past week (11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment and 261st Reserve Infantry Regiment).


This standing one I actually painted last week, but I wasn’t happy with the paint job. Luckily Stu Rat came to the rescue with a link to this fantastic post about Great War Sniper camouflage – with some fabulous pictures. I am much happier with the results now.


Another sniper – also from 1st Corps



I also finished up some casualty markers for the 5th Brigade – the figures are from Gripping Beast/Woodbine Design Company.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Should have three more posts in the next day or so – 16th Battalion, 22nd Battalion, and… Hellboy and the Scooby Gang escape a Zombie Outbreak….?

261st Reserve Infantry Regiment

This is the second of the German Regiments I painted up over nine years ago to oppose the 4th Canadian Division at the North end of Vimy Ridge. (the other regiment – the 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment – I posted earlier)

The 261st Reserve Infantry Regiment was part of the 79th Reserve infantry Division – which was part of the 1st Bavarian Reserve Corps (Gruppe Vimy)


261st Reserve Infantry Regiment


Regimental Command – currently a sigle staff officer (that I made myself)


Trench Mortars – from Renegade Miniatures (The 261st held hill 145 – which I know had a trench mortar batteries on it!)


I/261st Reserve Infantry Regiment


II/261st Reserve Infantry Regiment


III/261st Reserve Infantry Regiment

I found an interesting article about the 79th Reserve Infantry Division in Canadian Military History Volume 15 Issue 1. It is available in PDF here:


There is also a Wikipedia entry about the Division here:



Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Could be a game report for a Fear and Faith/Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters game we played on Friday… or the 22nd Battalion, which I finished up last night… or the 16th Battalion, which I finished rebasing… or some other random stuff…?

Thursday, July 7, 2016

11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment

As I haven’t bee posting any newly painted Canadians (or Germans, for that matter) for the Vimy Project (largely due to the arrival of THREE brigades worth of miniatures and me spending most of my hobby time getting those organized and prepped and based and primed and gooped…) I thought maybe I should get around to taking and posting pictures of some of the units I have already painted and just not gotten around to posting as complete units.

All of these are figures I modeled and cast myself . Most of these I painted over nine years ago. I think originally I made 13 figure battalions. Since then, however, I have changed to 15 figure battalions. So, somewhere along the line, I painted up a few more to bring them all up to strength.

Both of the German regiments I have done so far opposed the 4th Canadian Division and the north end of Vimy Ridge (Because that’s where I started with the Vimy Project).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment was part of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Division – which was part of Gruppe Souchez and occupied the very north end of the Ridge. It’s partner regiment (14th Bavarian Infantry Regiment) occupied “The Pimple” - a heavily fortified knoll just north of Vimy Ridge – which the 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade attacked a day or two after the assault of Vimy Ridge.


I/11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment


II/11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment


III/11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment

I know machine-guns were integral to German infantry battalions, but I’m not sure how to represent them in the game – when I ran it at Mayday 2007 I just had all the machine-guns in bunkers. I may do the same this time around, but at some point I should probably pick up some MG teams.

I also have a few Trench Mortars… but I’m not sure how they fit into the organization. I know there were a few on Hill 145 – because I read somewhere one of the taskings of the Canadian Trench Mortar batteries was to drop smoke on hill 145 to keep the German Trench mortars from being able to observe the advance of the Canadians on the Ridge. It seems later in 1917 there was a Trench Mortar Company in each Division and Platoons in each Regiment…? But where did they show up in the organization earlier? For now I guess I’ll just shoot for one or two per division.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

261st Reserve Infantry Regiment

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Long Weekend and Assorted Great War Canadians


A belated happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadian compatriots and happy Independence Day to all the Americans checking out the blog tomorrow! I hope you’ve all had a great long weekend (how often does that work out that Canada Day is on a Friday and Independence Day is on a Monday?).

I spent Friday finishing off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Two (so I could return it to the library of Saturday). Saturday I spent pretty much the whole day (well… 10 hours of it!) playing Angola with some friends:


A very long game of Angola (covering only the first 10 months of the 30 year civil war). Brent and I played the MPLA/FAPLA (which was considered two separate factions for game purposes) John played the FNLA (with some help from Zaire and assorted Mercenaries) and Kurtis played UNITA (and the South Africans). it was a tough game and there was a lot of back and forth in the first half - utter chaos - I felt totally lost. In the second half more clear lines consolidated and I thought things were looking up for the MPLA/FAPLA, but in the last round FNLA and UNITA really turned it around for the win! Fun, challenging game. Love to try it again sometime.


This was probably at the zenith of the MPLA/FAPLA game. The yellow is the MPLA – which I played – and the red is the FAPLA – which my partner Brent played. John’s FNLA was coming down from the north and Kurits’ UNITA forces working their way up from the south.

After I finish this post I'll probably be doing some yard work... (unless those clouds roll in a bit quicker and it starts raining... do I sound like I'm stalling...? I might be stalling...).

As I mentioned earlier I ordered a LOT of stuff over the last month… and most of it has arrived in the last few weeks. So I’ve been spending most of my hobby time assembling, prepping, basing, priming and gooping miniatures so they’d all be ready for painting – whenever I got to that! I have worked on a few fun things that have lingered on my workbench long enough to get some paint on them.


A staff member for the Second Division from 1st Corps. The 1st Corp miniatures are a bit on the chunky side, but there are a few interesting sculpts and they have a lot of character.


I added some of the same nylon screen door mesh I used for all my other barbed wire around the base of the post he’s perched on. Looking at it now I’ve realized I should have drybrushed a bit of reddish brown on there to make it look a bit rusty…


Another 1st Corps mini – one of two snipers I picked up. I’m not as happy with this one (the painting that is) he’s got a tarp over him for camouflage and while I know printed camouflage was not in use in the great war, I couldn’t imagine a plain khaki tarp being used and thought perhaps they might paint on some blotches of… something… to work as camouflage. The lines I painted on look far to regular – and honestly they probably wouldn’t have had access to such nice green and brown paints… The next one I’ll try to paint with blotches of brown and grey – to look more like patches of mud or charcoal that’s been smeared on… maybe I’ll repaint this guy…


Trench Fighters from 1st Corps. These are kind of a fun set of guys. Most of them look like they’re wearing sweaters rather than the issued tunic – and I wasn’t sure what colours to use…


I’m particularly fond of these first two in the front – especially the guy with two pistols – the funny thing is: one is an automatic and the other is a revolver!? While not exactly useful for the Vimy game, I thought they might be a fun set of characters for some small scale trench raids or role-playing-type game.


Some casualties/morale failure markers – the walking wounded is from Wargames Foundry  and the two dead fellows are from Gripping Beast.


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a battalion of the Gripping Beast figures on the workbench – along with some mortars from 1st Corps, and machine-guns from a few different manufacturers… hopefully I’ll finish up some of those in the not-too-distant future.