The Redgrave War - Part 3

I have previously reported on an old campaign, called the Redgrave War, fought in my Imagi-nation continent of Francesia.

The Redgravians invaded the Empire, seized Blancport, and defeated the Emperor Lester at the Battle of Shallow Stream in Middle March.

The scene of the fighting then turned to Southcoast. Expecting an attack, the Empire rushed reinforcements to the city, including a contingent of Marines aboard a squadron of ships commanded by Admiral Netherbottom. The Redgravian Navy attempted to intercept. Commodore Plotkin of the Redgravian squadron held the weather gauge and was able to swoop upon the Imperialists. The Imperial ships Tiramisu and Escargot took on the brunt of the attack and both were forced to strike their colors. Nevertheless, Netherbottom's flagship and another ship managed to escape, delivering the Marines to the beleaguered city.

Despite the efforts of the Marines, Southcoast fell to the Redgravians (the Marines managed to withdraw). As the siege dragged on, however, Emperor Lester organized a force to relieve the city. As it approached, Southcoast fell, but the Imperials were determined to regain it.

Seeing the Imperials advance, the Redgravian general, Schwarzwelder, decided to meet the enemy in the open field. It was a disastrous decision as he was outnumbered 2-1. The Imperial attack, led by the remaining Marines, smashed the Redgravians and the city returned to Imperial hands.

Laziness

It is Saturday morning and I have no chores for the day. What should I do with myself?

I feel that I should shake off my gamer ennui and work on one of my projects. So far today, I have thought about:

• painting my space marines and space fighters
• pulling out my 2mm medieval blocks (for my Dux Brit project from the summer)
• running my 2nd Space Templars adventure
• Basing more Risk figures for my Francesia horse and musket campaign

Yet it all seems, as I wrote above, like "work." This hobby should be fun, not work. Hence my sense of ennui.

Lately, I have been primarily playing video games. My wife and I have been playing Halo 3 (which we beat last night with some help with her brother) and I started a new character in Skyrim. Despite their drawbacks, video games make it very easy for us lazy gamers.

Tonight's Game

Halo Night with Elizabeth

Oops

I goofed up with my tiles.

I came up with a simple idea to determine the direction of any new tile placed. I drew a little black dot in one of the doorways of each tile. When a tile is drawn, the Space Marines enter through the marked doorway. Simple!

I then dived the tiles into 3 piles and marked the same doorway for each tile in a pile. That way, there is an even distribution among the doorways. I then tried it out and had a straight shot to the the objective room. It then dawned on me that for each tile there was a 2/3 chance of having a doorway straight ahead. Well that blew my goal of forcing a meandering path. For a second, I thought I'd have to redo the tiles!

I then came up with a simple solution. I blocked of the doorway across from the entrance for the air lock tiles. Now, the Space Marines will need to turn left or right after entering the derelict. Problem solved (I think).

A Little Progress

I mentioned that I have embarked on a Space Marine project. Here is a progress update.

 I have completed the enemies from Khurasan Miniatures (obviously not painted as nicely as on the Khurasan website). plus some basic modular tiles.

Here is a shot of a few of the enemies and tiles.

The little green creatures are Furry Mini-Hellions. I went with a really alien green. Now I wish I had done a more subdued job because they look like shrubberies. Oh well.

Next up are the Space Demon (the black creature) and the Plutonian (a lobster man creature). I know that the paint jobs are bad, but they are identifiable, and that's all I need.

The tiles themselves are gray foam mats cut into 3 inch squares. Each tile has a 1 inch square grid inked on it. I made 4 different types of tiles.

1. Objective Room - a 4-door room with an X in the center square. This represents the objective of the Space Marines.
2. Air Lock Room - a 4-door room with a black arrow in one of the doorways. The Space Marines will enter the space derelict through this lock.
3. T corridor
4. Room - with 3 doors.

I made 1 objective and 4 air locks. The rest of the tiles (approximately 34) are split evenly between corridors and rooms.

I purposely only made rooms and corridors with 3 doors in order to created a meandering pathway. I envision the players randomly picking and placing down tiles (the direction will be determined by a die roll). If the tiles had 4 doors, the players would have a straight shot to the objective room. With only 3 doors, they should now run into dead ends and have to zig zag a bit through the derelict.

Although it's not pretty, the set up is functional, and the project is making headway. I just need some Space Marines and the battle can begin!

Quick Update

Gaming
I haven't been playing any space games since I last posted, but I have been playing games.

Last weekend Elizabeth and I served a Halloween meal for some family members. Here is our handiwork:

 Mummy loaf with "moldy" potatos

Witch Hats for dessert

We followed dinner with a game of Space Hulk: Death Angel. We finally won, although that's largely because I was doing it wrong. I accidentally used the Void Lock card for 6 Space Marines rather than 6 players. As a result, we encountered far fewer Genestealers than normal. I rectified the mistake about halfway through and we proceeded to lose 9 of our 12 Marines!

I recently picked up a copy of Zombies!, which we played on Halloween as we were giving out candy. My brother-in-law picked a card to move 10 spaces in one turn. He made a dash for the heliport, killed a zombie in the way, and flew to safety (Elizabeth and I watched him as the zombies closed in on us).

I also picked up a copy of the Scandinavia version of Ticket to Ride. I completed 2 routes and steamed away with the victory. We followed with Forbidden Island, but it sank to the depths with the last treasure.

NOTE: We played both Zombies and Ticket to Ride for the first time last week, and enjoyed them both. I foresee many replays.

Space Project

I received the miniatures I had ordered and have started painting. I really suck at painting so I'm not doing anything fancy; just enough to get them on the table. My camera battery died so I don't have pics yet.