Game Theory Store in Raleigh with the TSS Lads

Hi Kids,  Last Saturday was one of the Triangle Simulation Society's game days, this time the hosting store was Game Theory on Highway 70, aka Glenwood Avenue.  Only about 8 kids showed up for a couple games of Low Level Hell and Dwarves vs. Goblins.

The first game was run by the World Famous Bruce, using 20mm figs and helicopters and loads of jungle terrain for Vietnam.  Each player got a copter of assorted varieties: Hueys, Gunships, and Cobras.  I got a troop carrier and turned out to be the commanding officer!  So naturally I had to speak like John Wayne/ Robert Duvall and use the callsigns "Bulldog" and "Big Duke 6."

 Here I am going in fast and hard, giving Charlie the gun!  All the VC figs are controlled by the guy running the game.  Regardless of the amount and type of dice I rolled, the most I could accomplish was scaring the trees.  Partially with wild shots, mostly with wild flying!

 World Famous Ollie was flying a Cobra, and the kid was hot!  Just about everytime he touched the dice he was wiping out entire enemy squads!  Most of the time he didn't even get to resolve the rocket fire, his grenade launcher and MG's took the enemy out before the rockets hit!

 We managed to pick up and fly out two chopper loads of troops!  Everyone got out safely!

 The long view of the store, lots of Warmachine / Hordes, RPG's, CCG's and boardgames!  Yeah, they even had some GW stuff on hand!

 Paint!

 Combat in space! The TSS lads weren't the only game in town, there were abot 30 guys playing some kind of combat tops, space games, and X-Wing!

 More combat in space!

 The world famous Dave sets out his custom built mountain mine terrain.  The Goblins controlled the mine, the Dwarves were raiding it!  On the left of the picture you can see the underground rooms, set out to correspond to the entrances in the mountain.  Home rules, very skirmishy, very quick!

 A better look deep inside the mines! The mushroom farm was a victory objective.

 The Dwarves approach the main entrance, defended by hordes of Goblins!

 One unit breaks off and dashes inside the mine!

 While some miners have managed to tunnel in!

 Yep, that's a troll, fighting on the Goblin side!

 More goblin reinforcements rush down the stairs to fight off the invaders!

 While the Dwarf miners are held at bay!

Although trolls could take a lot of punishment they only dealt it out a little at a time! So the game was called at this time, a Goblin win.

More Dusty Olde Figs

Hi Kids,  Lately it seems I'll do almost anything to avoid painting, this post is exactly that.  I've started to check out the facebook pages for Oldhammer and Old School Minis, and this post is a general response to some of the posts others have made.  And taking pictures is a lot faster and easier than painting!

 One of the lads wanted to see everyone's most esoteric mini.  In my humble opinion, this is probably mine.  IIRC, it's from Jeff Valient Studios, Set #7 was written on the box.  I've always just called it the "Chickenman."  At one point it had a lot of detail, but 6 different paintjobs with Testors Enamels have managed to fill in about 85% of that!  I bought this thing at The Complete Strategist on East 33rd, NYC back in the early 1980's. Lots of my figs are from there.  One of the greatest regrets of my life is wasting all that cash on RPG's when I should have been buying more minis!!!!!!!  What was I thinking? D&D? Bah! Humbug!

 Yeah, there's a lot of balsawood bases from the good old days.  I used to cut them all myself.

 Another lad mentioned that he had never seen this Mino still with the ax in one piece.  Well, here ya go!  My Mino's didn't get a lot of use until that edition of WFB when they made Mino's a variant list of Chaos Beastman armies, which probably has a lot to do with his survival without breaking.

 Another guy posted a Marauder Giant Spider Rider.  These 5 are 3 Heroes and 2 Wizards. These are on 40mm bases.  I used these guys a huge amount back when the Fear rules meant the loser broke automatically if they lost the combat. No outnumber or anything else required.  It was the best way to crush Dwarves! And speak of the devil, there's that $3.29 Ral Partha Balrog, the first one I ever bought!  No, he's not the guy with it all hanging out. That was a couple years later.

 Six Groms of the Misty Mountains?  Actually, I thought I had seven.  Why more than one?  About 30 years ago Citadel had a sale, 75 minis for $100. Or maybe it was 100 minis for $75, I can't remember.  Anyway, all you could do was pick out the race, Citadel sent randon figs. A great way to bulk up your armies, but you could end up with some weird stuff.  That's also why I have 35 Dark Elf Cold One Riders with no Cold Ones. I ended up special ordering RAFM "Land Dragons" to use as mounts. Although Cold One Knights sucked so bad I needn't have bothered.

 You think about old Citadel plastics, you've gotta be thinking of these guys.  They were called "Drastic Plastic," and there were only two; an ork and a dwarf.  I have about 10 of the orks, these three were made with ALL the weapon arm options. I think I did this to separate the heroes. Stole the idea from White Dwarf.  Couldn't find the others, but the Basement works in mysterious ways. These retailed for the outrageous price of US$0.25.

 Old Hobbits/Halflings, this one is a Sci-Fi adventurer. I'm not sure if 40K existed at this point.  He's holding a spoon and a pistol.

 At this point I was getting tired of moving stuff around digging for older stuff underneath.  Mini archeology has never been my strong suite. So I just snapped a pic of my second Land Raider where its been sitting for 20+ years. The first one is painted up in the colors of the 8th Imperial Shock Assault Legion, otherwise known as the Imperial Dicks.  Remember, they came in boxes of two. Went for about 700 points IIRC. Too bad a 50 point Eldar D-Cannon could blow 'em to atoms all day long.   Don't worry, all the parts and bits are inside the hull.  And yes, some of those black boxes (empty Copplestone and Tiger mini boxes) fell over right after this pic.

 

When I saw this thing I knew I had to take a picture!  This is what the old version of Nagash looked like back in the early 1990's, still in the shrinkwrap.  This might be a first one they made, I'm not sure.  Yep, $20.00.  Back then that was about 6 hours work at minimum wage. Before taxes. And that store had a policy of pricing everything ABOVE retail!

Old Hammer from the Depths of the Basement of Heaped Miniatures

 Hi Kids,  Looks like there's all sorts of excitement on the web about old figs.  Of course, there's always been a certain "old figs are cool" sensation with my friends and I.  Not really sure why having figs older than college students is a good thing, but I went spelunking into the Basement to see what I could see.  Most of these are Grenadier or Citadel figs from the Goode Olde Days.

Starting out on a low note, this is far and away the most disappointing miniature I've ever owned.  Bought it brand new, and when I opened it up was so absolutely horrified at the 2-dimensional nature of the beastie I put it right back in the box and have ignored it ever since.

 Ugh.  I wonder if it's worth anything on ebay?  Primered white.

 Here we have two of the three Lead Belcher Organ Guns I own.  All still in the boxes, the one not pictured is still in the shrinkwrap. I was going to ebay it last year but never got around to it. I really dig all those Grenadier Dragons of the Month, but nowadays these dragons are about as large as a GW pony.  Most of these dragons were what, US$8.95 back in the 1980's?  That's about the same as a GW pony's price now too, come to think of it. I love the four Warg Orc chariot, always have.  I've got a painted one also, and have used it in hundreds of games back when we were gaming all the freakin' time!  Ah, those all day long 30 turn 3rd ed games were so much fun!

 A shot of assorted Grenadier box sets.  Come to think of it, if they were all that great why have I left them in the boxes for 30+ years?  Sometimes I really wonder just how slack I might be.  A hint for all my buds:  Don't answer that!

This bad boy was in the back of that last picture, but I figured as a kick-butt dragon Teronus deserved to be up close and personal!  One of these days I'm going to have to inventory my madness. All these figs were purchased brand new in local NC hobby shops or on visits to The Complete Strategist on East 33rd Street, NYC, where I'd go a couple times a year and toss cash around.  Haven't been there in a couple years now, I need to get up there and poke around again!  They probably still have some of this stuff on the shelves!

Grenadier Juggernaut, Painted Old Hammer!

Hi Kids, I know everyone got the accurate impression that I have all sorts of unpainted stuff floating around.  Lots, but not all!  Here are some examples of PAINTED old minis! Now before you keel over from the shock, let me point out that I did not paint these. I commissioned our resident expert Col Kilgore himself to slap some pigment on these figs. He's a lot better at it than I am, too! First up is Grenadier's Juggernaut!  Remember the Orc rider is a 25mm fig! Back when that actually meant 25mm....  I have always dug this fig!

Back when I wanted a Lizardman army, I thought this heavyweight would be a great general!  I still think so, but I lost interest in Lizardmen were I came to the conclusion that even 15d6, taking the best 2, would not allow me to pass a Leadership test. The Orc rider is not glued on.

 Damn that flood light is bright!

His other side.  The Col told me there's a facebook page ("Old School Miniatures" )where they were blogging about this fig, and I figured I'd stick it out there for all to see.

Oop Orc Wyvern assembly

While playing in the last 40k league I wanted to field two of the Chaos Heldrake Daemonic flyers. I used a oop metal fantasy battle High Elf dragon for the first one and a loaner Reaper clockwork dragon for the second one. So I wouldn't have to rely on the loaner dragon I decided to build another large fantasy flyer to be the second proxy Heldrake.

After a search through the Closet of Doom I found a classic Azhag the Slaughterer model. He has been in the closet of Doom for many years. I acquired him probably back in 4th or 5th edition when I was actively adding to my Orc fantasy army.

The base on the foot reads 1993 Marauder. A little late to be a 80's classic but still a classic model.

The model originally  came with a 40mm base but I used a 50mm to bring it more in line with the current rules. A couple people have pointed out that the other dragons have a 100x50mm chariot base but I can live with it. Above is the torso and tail added. The box art has the tip of the tail pointed toward the front but I couldn't seem to get it to work without it touching the wings. I ended up straightening out the tail so it will be between the wings.

The neck added without the head and wings.

The head added and the wings dry fitted.

 It funny building another model I have had for almost 20 years. If I keep it up I might clear the back log in another 20 years.

ColKG

40K First Edition "Rogue Trader" Orks

Hi Kids,  Figured I's take a few snaps of the Olde Style 40K that are lurking in the Basement, awaiting their next chance for world domination.  Or maybe multiple worlds.  These are the bad boys I painted up maybe 25-30 years ago.  The squads are way too tiny to use in the current ed, although I guess you could use them all as truck mounted guys.

 This first squad are the 427th Chevy.  Each guy is named after a different engine displacement; so we have LS6, 454, 396, COPO 427,etc.  One guy suggested I use small block numbers for the Grots, but I never got that far painting the Grots.

 Named after a college course, there are the Chem 101 lads.  Maybe that should be 101st Chem.

 Out of the pages of The Book, the 10th SS Drop Legion!  Yeah, back then they used hexagon slottabases.  Don't know why.  And speaking of bases, the color of the base is how I could tell the squads apart on the battlefield.  No flocking, either.

 Named after some guy's nickname for his Risk army, the 13th Ju-Ju Warriors!  I think Ju-Ju might have something to do with either voodoo or African witchcraft.  Not sure which.

 The Johnny-come-lately's for the RT paintjobs, the 1040th IRS are about 5 years younger than all the rest. Used more shiny metals like gold since they're named after everyone's favorite tax form.

 The Big Cheese of the Outfit.  The only Super Cyboar I ever owned!  He was so useless I really didn't need more than one.  In one campaign he managed to throw himself under tank treads every single game!  ("Anything but a one!" ring any bells?)

 Decided not to bother taking the rest of the lads off the shelved for pictures.  There's just too many of them.  And this white background makes them turn up better anyway.  Here's the Biker portion of the outfit, along with a fistful of Mechanics.  MUCH prefer the original metal buggies and bikes over the newer plastic ones.

 A couple editions ago you could field entire squads of heavy weapons, hence the blue based heavy squads.  In the background you can see a few dozen of the plastic editions; the squad in from is the 460th Fords.

 Next shelf up, the Madboys, Grots, Heavy Crew-served guns (Pulsa Rokkits, Lifta-droppa's, etc.)

 Cyborks, Maddoc's bodyguards.  Red nose cones are Jump Infantry called Rocket boys or something equally silly.  Shock attack guns, too.

And last of all, some prior ed trucks next to the Dreadnoughts I posted about a couple months ago.  I like the camo paint jobs better than the simple red.  I still kinda dig these truck models, easy to build and paint without that current baling-wire-and-glue look.

 

So now is the tricky part; how many non-GW figs did you see?