Weekender XLBS: HUGE Hobby Update & Justin Vs Lloyd At Rorke’s Drift
October 15, 2017 by warzan
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Woohoo! Go Ben! As a fan of Next Generation I cannot stand the new series and rather spend my time on the Expanse. Worst of all, it is behind a pay lock which sucks. I am not a fan either and have quit after the 4th episode and I will stop paying at the end of the month. I disagree @warzan I HATE the new Klingon look. I do not like the plot nor the new characters.
At this point I rather find 6 friends and take out a copy of the board game “Captain is Dead” and get my Star Trek fix.
I am surprised that @warzan is who loves many things myth and lore is not watching the Amazon Prime Series “Lore” that is based upon the podcast of the same name.
I just hadn’t heard of LORE thanks for the tip off mate 🙂
Great show and what a battle report, that looked like a load of fun. For the volcano you could have some tunnels throughout for a game of blood and plunder, maybe some treasure has been hidden in there and you have to get it before the thing blows, or maybe with the new frostgrave book, Ghost Archipelago, some tropical island with a volcano to run around in.
Forgot to say good luck tomorrow to you and your family @warzan
Hahahahaha loved this episode.
I’ve been sitting at my desk many times and had a Bluetounge lizard curled up near my feet (they like to bite and lock their jaw). Right now the Magpies are swooping, snakes are waking up, sharks are coming closer and everythings having kids and getting very aggressive.
This video basically sums up how casual we are about a snake that would kill dozens of people with one bite.
https://youtu.be/myeXMuGJAB8
What an awesome old dude lol
#legend
I think it depends where you live. I lived in Melbourne for 6 years and saw a couple of huntsmen,a few redbacks a few white tails and a Tiger snake
I love the @warzan rambles, I’m all about the rambles man!
You could set up a mic and record the audio as a backup for us to download in case of future video recording fails. 😀
Happy Sunday everybody.. Sorry to be ‘that guy’ but didn’t the British army use actual rifle bullets at Rorkes drift? That looks like a musket ball..
Again, sorry to be ‘that guy’ it’s like an illness – can’t switch it off..
Yes they used bullets 🙂
Congrats Warren!!! Best of luck to you and the family. 😀 Glad to hear Justin made it over here in the states and not Guantanamo. 😮
Really loving Discovery, but as i`m a big Star Trek fan it`s a win win for me.
Now John`s going full-on Historical, hope he`s been videoing what he`s been up to. I always thought the “Bren (Universal) Carrier” was a funny little vehicle. I still do, but it does have it`s uses. John your dad`s gonna love it, no matter what you do with it.
Doing thing`s with your kids is some of the most relaxing time`s you`ll ever have, and helping with school project`s like making “Volcano`s” is one of those time`s. Now wanting to make one as big as you want to, that there is a challenge and a half……………..good luck Warren. As to what type of game to use it for, why not go with this……………….At the bottom of the volcano there is an entrance to a world where time stood still. Where man and dinosaur coexist, then one day the top dwellers find there way there and from that moment on it`s war. Man with Dinosaurs V`s Man with Vehicles. There are lot`s of other thing`s, but i think you would want Dinosaurs…………….I know i would.
congratulations @warzan hope all goes well, great choice of name 😉
that was a great game and a great day, long and brutal but a great laugh. Great group of lads. Thanks to all for a great day.
always glad to have you back up. Maybe Clontarf next time, I’ve got all the Irish now 😉
Well on for that, need more Vikings, lots more Vikings, or maybe Pagan Rus..
I’ll unfriend you if I see Pagan Rus o.O
LOL
Personally i think there should be a compulsory dose of zulu each week. Doesn’t have to be rorke’s drift each week it could be any time during the few months of the war.
I’ve looked forward to sitting down and watching this all day. I was not disappointed. The game looked great Quite how the British won this encounter I’m not sure. Lloyd’s tactic of wearing the Zulu’s out until they were desperate to get down the pub seems to have been better plan than I thought.
to let you in on a secret mate, 12 turn game, at the end of turn 9 knowing they had 3 turns left and it looked unwinnable the Zulu players asked each other “we need some kind of a plan” I feel that may have been 9 turns too late. There are a few moments that beggar belief and made me scratch my head. But as impartial GM I didn’t give any tips until the last turn when it looked like they were close to throwing in the towel.
Remember folks, Prior Preparation and Planning, Prevents Piss Poor Performances 😉
No worries I can keep a secret 😉
So King Justawayo didn’t let anyone know the Battle plan before the game or there was no plan ?
I don’t think there was a plan, in fact I don’t think there is one to this day 😉
I have some plans for further tweaking, but if I play it again I want to actually play it. I’ve never got a chance to since I’ve always been running it for others. The fact you have to run it out on a 8×6 board means it’s not something that can be thrown down at the drop of a hat.
The fact you have never played it yourself but put it on for your friends says a lot about you.
Such an iconic game deserves to be played again. I don’t think there can be many gamers who wouldn’t want to see how they would fair.
Best wishes to you and your growing family @warzan
I think Ben is losing it guys warren is talking away as he is nocking back a pint of vodka in the background.?
a great show the details on the Bren carrier was tremendous the Zulu battle was a great surprise.
For PVAs – the only difference is how much watered down they are – I wouldn’t bother with any of the “hobby” PVA glues – buy it from a trade shop – and get the ‘raw’ unwatered down stuff – much much cheaper and then you can water it down to whatever level you need for a particular job.
Learned all this from Mel The Terrain Tutor so can’t take credit! 🙂
I’m googling “cal’s thick white paste” and wishing I hadn’t.
His full name is Houses of Parliament Lovecraft. Like the sauce.
seems legit
You need to play some kind of pulp era game with the volcano. You have to save the “Justin” before he gets sacrificed to the volcano god. If he gets sacrificed the volcano god is angry and chucks him back out.
Great weekender! Loved the Zule game – congratulations @avernos on producing something so epic.
Best wishes with the expanding family @warzan !
As for the volcano, I think you should go foam, mainly for ease of making, use and storage. But also flexibility. Remember that volcanoes don’t explode all the time, so no reason why most of the volcano can’t be covered with the normal cliff / rock, grass and flock. Indeed, burnt grass around the mouth of the volcano would look pretty cool. You don’t need to try to get the whole surface to look like barren rock.
As for games, as well as some of the other great ideas, if you build a dungeon into it then you could use it as a dungeon saga / DnD dungeon and use or not use the volcano itself. The Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars I think have a habbit of building bases into volcanoes – so that’s another angle you could take.
Great battle report on Rorke’s Drift – always feels good to see historical on Beasts of War. 😀 Great table and amazing miniatures.
thanks matey, next time I play it I hope to have finished detailing it all. on the footage you can see only the mealie bags on the redoubt have the stripes applied, so have to add them to all the other walls, and finish my ovens of course ^^
I remember you said you had some more Rorke’s Drift material ready for us, and hoped it would see the light of day. Very glad it did! Seriously, this is exactly the kind of wargaming I go in for. Even if it’s not a war or battle I know very much about, the “design and gaming methodology” is spot on.
1) Choose a subject.
2) Research the ever-living **** out of it.
3) Build the game that replicates the research as best you can.
4) Take your hands off the game and let it run.
5) Run the same game several times, each time making small adjustments to the game to enhance the balance between playability and historical fidelity.
This is the kind of thing I try to do all the time, but because I’m 4300 miles away I can’t really help do it in the studio. 😐 So we’re relying on you, Gerry! 😀 😀
cheers Jim, every time I go back it gets a little tighter and a bit more interesting…it also grows, up to 80 defenders now so I started at 1:2 models per defender in real life. But I’m getting closer to 1:1, at which point everyone gets a name.
the only question is once I’m 100% happy with the Drift which encounter to go for next?
@avernos Clearly your next project has to be Isandlwana at 1:1. Clearly.
If I ever did that it would either be 6mm or a hex map game. Isandlwana was about failure of supply lines and you couldn’t make an interesting game in 28mm reflecting that. But no I think something else may be on the cards… maybe the first time a spartan force surrendered… not sure yet….of course there is a lovely napoleonic farm sitting there 😉
So, at the time this video was made, what has John done so far painting-wise with that Bren Gun Carrier and 6-pounder model? Has he started the shading process using black/grey/white primers? Or is the black/grey/white a basecoat over primer? If I knew what’s steps he’s planning on taking after this, I might have a better idea of what process he’s using. Any answers to this? They look *fantastic* btw!!!
that is primed and shaded using black and white primers from badger’s airbrush range Stynlrez (spellings probably off a shade there) There is a video this week where he shows me how to do some zenithing and talks about them in there
@warzan I agree that TVdrama has become better than film. I’ve been watching Chinese and Korean drama on the app Viki. Some of the shows being made out in Asia are really good, couple that with the stuff coming out of the US, and the sprinkling of UK, I would say we’re seeing a sort of golden age in TV drama.
Funny Warren should mention our nasty Australian wild life as i was just in the backyard before watching XLBS and discovered our 4th dead snake in the last 2 weeks . All fell victim to our trusty Staffordshire bull terrier aptley named Piper ( hunter ) . Really do dread the day her luck runs out though . Greetings from Port Macquarie
As far a thick PVA, here is my prefered:
https://www.amazon.com/Aleenes-36116-Original-Tacky-Glue/dp/B01EK7LGH4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1508170173&sr=8-4&keywords=tacky+glue
Great show fellas, loved the Rorke’s Drift segment.
Great battle report of Rorke’s Drift, very inspirational. I am working on a few hundred Zulus to run a similar type of game at our club. I had a few questions (apologies if i missed the answers in the video or notes).
– The rules looked like TMWWBK ?
– How many Zulus did you use and how often were they recycled?
– How many British did you use?
– Have you written the scenario and house rules up and are they available ?
– the rules are 99.9% TMWWBKs the changes I made was to include a special rule for each of the heroes of Rorke’s Drift
– British was originally 6 squads of 10 men with a shoot value of 4+ but for the game in the bat rep I expanded that to 8 squads and reduced their shoot to 5+ as they could cover more of the perimeter I felt they didn’t need the advantage as much.
– Zulus, each of the four Impis was made from two 16 man regiments. There was a fifth regiment of iNdluyengwe being used as the Oskerberg Snipers. For the larger game I added another two pairs of regiments.
– Each unit activates on a card being drawn which leaves the Zulus one activation behind the British, to address this I added a Joker. The Joker card can be played on any Zulu regiment to allow it to activate, even if it has already acted that turn.
Also the regiments within an Impi act independently, so when the card is drawn the Zulu player can activate either of the two regiments, or if they are within 3″ of each other they can be group moved but this can not be used to charge.
– Zulu regiments can be recycled at will by playing their card. This means if a unit is decimated in the field you can play the card to remove them and next turn on their card they come back on from the board edge. Combining that with the Joker means you could remove them and return them at full strength in the same turn.
– I’ve not written them down completely, if it sounds like something you want I can. I also have the pdf’s for the unit cards for both sides done by a very clever chap at our club that I can send you. All you need then is a deck of cards and your copy of TMWWBK
Hope that helps
That is really helpful, thank you very much! I like the recycling mechanic and the figure count is not too crazy! I would love to get the pdf of the cards , they look great. Thanks again for the detailed reply.
PM me your email and I’ll fire you the PDFs