revford blog

BLAM 10 is over, time to start preparing for BLAM 11

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:27:21 GMT

It's over! We all had a great time and people seemed to enjoy our presentation of Dairy of the Dead.

Now is the time to come up with a great plan for next year. I'm thinking Doctor Who, but don't have a fixed idea of a plot yet. My thoughts are divided between foiling a Dalek scheme or evading the Weeping Angels. We can have a beard about it on Tuesday.

Dave took a mountain of photos so I'll try and scrounge some off him and get them posted up here in the next few days, meanwhile there are plenty to see from all the great games on Lead Adventure here:

Photos From Blam 2010

BLAM Tomorrow

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:24:53 GMT

Final touches to are almost complete. All the cards, dice, tape measures, counters, minis, vehicles and props are packed up and ready to go. Most of the scenery is finished and packed up, just a final few touches being added to the buildings today.

Just a few hours now until we set sail for Lead Adventure.

Dairy of the Dead: The Survivors

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:15:19 GMT

Here are the bands of Survivors for The Dairy of the Dead as things stand. With luck we should have one, maybe two more by the time BLAM kicks off.

Dairy of the Dead, it's almost here

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:32:59 GMT

It's almost here...

Zombie Count Update

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 10:32:32 GMT

Just finished up the bases on another dozen Zeds, that pushes us up to 133 completed.

Also the Church of St Mary is assembled and painted, so that's over to Harvey for detailing.

After running the field stone mould almost non stop for three days, I'm out of plaster again and have a living room filled with drying blocks. Should be plenty to assemble the remaining sections of the Pub on Tuesday, with a bit of luck there may even be enough to build a little shop.

With no scenery on the go today or tomorrow, I'll have a crack at getting the rules summary sheet and unit cards done.

Zombie Count 121

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:21:24 GMT

I've just finished up another batch of Mantic Zombies, pushing the horde to 121. Painting up Zombies while casting blocks today.

A few more small scenery bits finished as well today, the loose fireplaces for the houses. Also the whole Church is undercoated and I'll get that painted and assembled tomorrow.

A dozen more Zombies are assembled and should get painted tomorrow. I'm aiming now for 150 by BLAM in two weeks time.

Actions in Dairy of the Dead

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:54:39 GMT

A quick rules snippet now, anything that doesn't have it's own rule. Jumping, swimming, breaking into a house or car, climbing through a window, all these things are Actions.

It's very simple, roll a d6, 1 it's a Fuck Up, you've failed in the most spectacular way, made a noise and possibly stunned or even hurt yourself. 2-5 you've managed it but it's taken all your move to so do. 6 you've aced it, completed the Action and get to carry on moving.

Almost everything in the game follows this scheme. 1's being a massive failure, 6's being exceptional sucess.

100 Zombies and other Dead bits

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:39:06 GMT

I'm now up to 100 finished Zombies. Levi has another 30 on the go and along with whatever David and Zak produce we're looking good for that massive horde at BLAM.

The four walls of the church are built and undercoated, the base is assembled but needs paint. Just the foyer to build for that one.

The pub base and two walls are done and painted, we need to cast up more blocks for the other walls. Levi has done the barrel furniture and Harvey is in charge of woodwork.

So all in all, it's getting there.

Movement for Diary of the Dead

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:52:57 GMT

Movement rules, nice and simple.

Survivors move 6", Zombies move 4", Vehicles move 10".

If you've laying face up, it costs half your move to stand up.

Move penalties for weapons apply to Vehicles too, to fire a half move weapon from a car, you could only move 5".

You can move out of or into a Vehicle at the start or end of it's move.

You can grab someone by moving into base to base contact. Once you're grabbed, you can't move and have to fight in the Melee phase.

Vehicles can move once grabbed, but it costs 1" of move for each person grabbing on. It also costs 1" of move to run someone over.

When a vehicle moves, roll on the following table for each person grabbed on or run over.

Weapon Rules for BLAM 2010

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:55:20 GMT

Weapon stats for Dairy of the Dead, it's time to get some of these rules written down, rather than floating about in our heads.

The game rules are based an extremely cut down version of Legends of the Old West by Mark Latham and Rick Priestley, with much taken from V for Victory by Guy Bowers and plenty of influence from the 2HW series by Ed Teixeira.

Rng is Range, Sht is number of Shots, Mv is how far you can Move if you want to shoot.

In all shooting, you roll the number of dice listed under Sht to hit, any that come up 4+ are Hits, 6's are Head Shots and 1's are Clicks.

Head Shots kill Zombies instantly, there is no need to roll for wounds, but you still have to roll for cover. Head shots have no special affect on Survivors.

Click mean you're out of ammo, you can spend your next shoot action to reload. Reloading a weapon has the same move restrictions as firing it. For example, you can reload a Half Move weapon after moving 3" on foot, but not if you've moved the full 6".

The target can claim Cover from any scenery that partially blocks line of sight, the shooter must roll 4+ to miss each item of cover between him and the target. This includes other models. Cover is rolled after the to hit but before the to wound.

Once you've decided which shots are hits, roll those dice again. 4+ is a wound on Survivors or Zombies, 6's wound Vehicles. Wounded Survivors are removed, wounded Zombies are placed face down. Any model hit but not wounded is placed face up. Vehicles ignore the first wound, then are disabled on suffering a second.

Bad Ass Weapons wound Survivors and Zombies on a 3+ and Vehicles on a 5+.

Rerolls can be used on any shooting dice, that is to hit, to avoid cover or to wound. Yes you can use a reroll to avoid a Click. Yes you can use a reroll even if you've hit in the hope of getting that Head Shot, but you run the risk of turning a hit into a miss.

I think that's about it for shooting. I'll post up another rules chunk later, we still have Moving, Melee, Priority & Turns and Noise & Spawning to cover.

The British Army

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:50:05 GMT

Small in numbers but with superior firepower we have the British Army in their Land Rover Wolf.

Major Davies leads the team with a Combat Pistol, along with two Assault Rifles and the Bad Ass LSW.

Alongside their primary mission to search for other survivors, the Zombies have reduced even the Army to searching out valuable food and fuel supplies.

The Major is from Gripping Beast, the Infantry are from TAG and the Land Rover is from S&S.

The Mantic Zombie Horde

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:26:15 GMT

Just when I said I was done with Zombies, the Mantic Zombie Horde arrived. Another 60 plastic Zombies.

I'll get what I can done, but it's all about getting the scenery finished for me at the moment.

The Cult of the Golden Shower

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:50:21 GMT

The Cult of the Golden Shower, servants of the sinister criminal mastermind The Alchemist, riding in their gigantic golden monster truck.

Leading the Cult in this mission is Henry armed with the Bad Ass Sword, along with Terry with his Shotgun, three Cultists with Pistols and Randy Nolan the creepy dwarf with the lantern.

Beyond the ever valuable food and fuel, The Alchemist demands more zombie brains for his demented experiments.

Miniatures are from Pulp, while the truck came from Poundland.

Smugglers from The Worker's Republic of Borkova

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:37:27 GMT

Time for a few shots of the Survivor teams for Dairy of the Dead, our rural themed zombie game for BLAM 2010.

First up we have Uncle Joe and his Borkovan smugglers, riding in the Borkovan Brown Hummer.

Uncle Joe's stylish 'tash marks him as the owner of a Bad Ass Pistol, one guy has a Machine Pistol and all the others carry standard Pistols.

This gang of criminals were here importing Borkovan Opium to raise money for the revolution back home when the Zombie Apocalypse struck. Now they need to raid the village of the weak bourgeois capitalists for viable food and fuel.

Miniatures are from Copplestone, with one TAG MP5K swapped in to give them a little more firepower. The Hummer came from Poundland.

Zombie Painting Complete!

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:27:35 GMT

I'm done, 77 zombies painted, from ZombieSmith, West Wind and Cold War. As long as Levi and David turn out about 40 each, along with as many as Zak can turn out, we're all set for "Dairy of the Dead".

We've now got 3 weeks to get the scenery finished. The board needs road markings, 4 of the 5 houses need woodwork, the church only has two walls and we need to cast up more blocks to finish the pub. Better than last year but we could still be on the road to fuckupville if we don't get on with it.

What I Painted This Week: 8-14 July 2009

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:29:00 GMT

New Bloodbowl Balls, from Heresy. Cheers to Jak who passed these to me when they came with his new Deathball Wights.

Next up we have some Villagers for our 'Nam campaign, these are 20mm minis from East Riding.

The Jawa Traders now have a finished spacecraft, a Lunar Lander, with one previous careful owner. This came from a Charity shop so I've no idea who makes it. The Sofa came from Black Cat.

Also from Black Cat is this Modern US Phone Box.

From Copplestone's KGB men, we have more Borkovan Smugglers, destined for our "The Wire" inspired Drug Dealers game.

Modern British Police, from Warm Acre, not great sculpts but the only up to date British Police minis I can find. These are destined for Doctor Who games.

This guy came from Artizan via DeSilva, a Mexican Bandit for some Old West gaming. Also like all other historical minis, perfect for some Doctor Who adventures.

And Finally. More Bottletop Barrels, continuing on with this project from last week. The big delay with making these is waiting on emptying bottles. :)

Another quite productive week there. Not sure what I'll get done next week, I'm hoping to get a few more Samurai characters, more Doctor Who characters, monsters and scenery as well as an X-Wing finished.

Started but not finished this week include Winston Churchill from Black Scorpion and more Dark Ages Villagers.

The new TARDIS still needs it's panels, the plan is to print some out and stick them on, so I can get the Police Box signs looking good.

What I Painted in Week 1 of July

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:12:17 GMT

My new plan, rather than posting each individual model I paint, will be to do a post a week with all the stuff I've painted. And with that plan here is week one of July.

More Dark Ages villagers for The Doctor or SGR to meet on their adventures. From Gripping Beast.

A Scruffy Ronin from EM4.

Another Dalek, this time it came from a board game found in a charity shop.

Star Wars minis from Wizards, the second Jawa is actually a Micro Machines Evil Emperor. The Cyborg in Gold had is gun removed, arm rotated and a briefcase built from parts of a 1:72 Huey Rocket Pod and a GW Imperial Guard Autocannon.

Here we have the latest additions to Weird Des's Gang, The Weirdos. Two Converted Heavy Weapons Men, based on a Slick from East Riding with a Minigun from an EM4 Robot.

Also new for the Weirdos are two Armed Launches, 25mm Armed Splinters from Old Crow, simply the best finish on a resin cast model I've ever seen, first class.

The remaining troops for our 'Nam NVA Platoon, all 1:72 plastics from Italeri.

From Artizan a pair of downed RAF Pilots, ready to be smuggled back to England by The Resistance.

Based on a great idea from Ironworker on the Lead Adventure Forum, Barrels made from plastic bottle tops. Dead simple and look good so I'll be making a ton more of these. Some are singles and some are grouped into stacks.

And that's all for this week, I've a few other things started including Nam villagers, a new TARDIS and a second hand spacecraft for the Jawas but I'll include them in the week I finish them.

Now it's time to finish setting up the Doctor Who game for tonight.

Borkovan Smugglers

Sat, 16 May 2009 09:22:36 GMT

The first three Borkovan Smugglers for our drug dealers game, running smack from the poppy fields into the US to raise funds for the revolution back home.

The minis are from the Copplestone end of the Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang range.

The Workers Republic of Borkova

FNG '67 Campaign

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:16:56 GMT

Over the last few weeks, as the Tuesday late game we started a 'Nam campaign using the FNG rules from Two Hour Wargames.

FNG

I've finally got around to sorting out a page for the game, I'll sort out some better pics of the units as they stand and the vehicles soon.

FNG 67

UNIT Sniper

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:35:01 GMT

A Sniper team for the Modern Paras, UNIT and Stargate Recce. Minis from the TAG SAS range.

The Paras