Dead Man's Hand AAR Zorro Saves The Day

I got up to the club again last week for another game of Dead Man's Hand with Jeff. We had such a blast with the last game that I really wanted to play again but try something a little different and something a little more pulpy and swashbuckling, so I brought out my Zorro models from Boot Hill Miniatures and had a bit of a think about a narrative scenario. 

The night before I threw on the old Disney Zorro television show with Guy Williams into the DVD player to get some ideas for what the game could be about and right from the first episode it was easy to come up with Zorro saving someone from being jailed for speaking out on the high taxes. So I painted up this poor fella from Great Escape Games and had him be the objective. Really pleased with how he came out too.

 

Here are some photos of each side - the good. I thought it would be fun to be able have three of the five be on horseback to start if Jeff wanted. Depending of course on what his plan of entering the town would be.

The bad. Capitan Monastario, with his sword raised would lead the Lancers. I had two mounted options for myself with the Capitan and Sergeant Garcia.

Our favorite pot bellied sergeant, Demetrio Lopez Garcia.

And the ugly. Casualty figures is something that I always have to have whenever I am playing a game. 

I had a bit of fun and just threw some civilian figures around the village to liven it up a bit.

A couple of priests from Warlord Games. If things began to go pear shaped for Zorro I figured these guys could jump in and maybe help turn the tide for the good guys. 

Since his clothes fit the style of the table I had to put Fezzik from 'The Princess Bride' over by the wood piles 😀

Pedro the Peddler at his market stand.

This mariachi  band and dancer are some of my favorite models from the entire Boothill line.

The town elders anxiously awaiting Zorro after ringing the church bell for help. 

While I was in the box that had Fezzik I also grabbed Wesley, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts. Since I was working with another mask hero I thought that I would try a bit of hobby and put a mask on him, as they are terribly comfortable - allegedly anyway.

I used blue painter's tape as I didn't want to mess about with green stuff and all things considered I think it works - and the bonus is I can pop it on and off with no issues.

Here's a overall view of the table.

I had my entire force around the tree by the fountain with only Sgt. Garcia mounted on his horse, but I did have Capitan Monastario's horse tied up close by just in case I needed to get someone else on horseback quickly.

Zorro and two of his Legionnaires entered on horseback through the main gate, while the other two attempted to jump over the walls from the west and the north behind the stable.

The glamour shot before the chaos ensued. Unfortunately, as always happens when I play a game, I got so caught up in actually playing that I forgot to take pictures so the following will be just some of the major highlights, but believe me there was a whole lot more action that happened - we even had a great cinematic moment with a Lancer jumping off his horse and tackling a Legionnaire over by the black stagecoach.

Once Zorro entered the town he immediately jumped off his horse and began to work his way towards poor Juan who was about to be lead away to jail by the Lancers.

Capitan Monastario saw this happening and immediately made his way around to try to stop Zorro. I used several interrupt cards to both give myself an extra movement action as well as bonuses to a pistol shot, which dealt two wound markers to the fox.

Zorro and Capitan Monastario had an epic battle with clashing swords through two full turns.

The fight went back and forth, wounds taken and wounds healed on each activation, with both coming close to being taken out of the game but Zorro prevailed in the end.

This Lancer was my MVP, he took care of one of Zorro's Legionnaires (peaking through the broken wall in the back) with his rifle. He then jumped on that horse behind the blacksmith and quickly made his way to help at the front gate. Knocking one Legionnaire out on the way by jumping on him from the horse (referenced above) and then taking out another Legionnaire with his rifle. 

Meanwhile, Sgt. Garcia on horseback galloped to the front gate to help.

A Legionnaire taking out a Lancer right next to where Capitan Monastario fell.

Over two turns I was able to take out two of Jeff's models here and feeling a bit overconfident I had Sgt. Garcia make his way into combat with Zorro, swords clashing again. 

I was this close to taking Zorro down with Sgt. Garcia with this roll! That 20 was teetering on coming up but fell back and I was left with a 2 and a huge opportunity missed. Of course the next activation Zorro took out Garcia.

It was carnage personified here near the wagon and front gate with a total of six figures being taken out of the game there.

In the end our masked hero in black prevailed and will be back to right injustice again where ever it may end up on my 6x4 tabletop in the future.

Until next time, thanks for looking!

Ivor

Bond Characters And Podcasts

I've been wanting to get this post out for almost four weeks now, but as usual, the farm is just crazy busy and hobby time is at the bare minimum. It's pretty frustrating that no one realizes how I need to get up to the studio on a regular basis to keep my sanity 😃

This batch of James Bond figures are all from Crooked Dice Studios and consist of characters from the movies Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Goldeneye. All have the new clear bases.

Hugo Drax

Jaws

Anya Amasova

Alec Trevelyan

Xenna Onatopp

This is Diego, who finished sixth at Nationals about a month ago!

As busy as I have been with the horses and the farm, the one huge positive that does come from it is it allows me to listen to podcasts all day. There are a ton of really great podcasts out there that focus on the tabletop hobby, but I want to call out one that I think is just heads and shoulders above all of them.

The Cast Dice podcast is hosted by Brad "Old Man Morin". If you are, or were into Bolt Action at any point, and listened to BA podcasts I'm sure you will recognize Brad's name - probably from the LRDG podcast.

He's branched off on his own now with Cast Dice and this is hands down my favorite podcast to listen to. He has a wide range of guests and games that he talks about (and has even started to touch on pop culture stuff which is super exciting) so you're going to get a little bit of everything that's currently out, which is great for someone like me who can't stay focused on any one project and always gets sucked into the newest shiny game that gets released.

What really strikes me about Brad is that you can really tell by the way he talks that he has an absolutely incredible passion for gaming - and it's all aspects. Rules, figures, terrain, developers, current trends, etc.  And I love his interview style - it's extremely professional and he really tries to make it balanced between himself and his guest, and you will often hear him say "I've been talking too much, what are your thoughts". He interacts with his guests really well and you can tell he genuinely listens to them talk by the questions he asks. I know that I'll probably never meet him, but spending several hours a week listening to him, I feel like we're cut from the same cloth and could easily be friends - so a big thanks Brad!

I also wanted to put out a quick plug for two of  Brad's more recent podcasts. The first features Simon Quinton, from Brummie's Wargaming Blog fame. I'm sure most of you already know Simon, but he does some absolutely incredible work over on his blog that you should definitely check out.  He and Brad talk all about Crooked Dice's 7TV rules set in Cast Dice episode #42 and it's great stuff! The second one features Jayson over at the Doctor Merkury blog. Jayson is doing some brilliant tabletop stuff with classic G.I.Joe from the 80's (and I blame him for making me seek out those original comics I sold years ago again - thankfully I found them in collections at my local library and have placed a hold on the first one), and he and Brad talk quite a bit about that along with some other cool stuff in Cast Dice episode #35. Highly recommended.

And now on to part duex of the podcasts. As I mentioned above, Brad has started to touch on pop culture with his podcast, and last month Cast Dice talked about the classic James Bond film 'Never Say Never Again' - episode #40. Brad's guest for that show was Jarrod Alberich, known as the Yard Sale Artist, and it was an absolute blast to listen to Brad and Jarrod talk through the entire movie.

One sequence I always loved from that movie was the opening. And to me it really felt like it could easily be a great little tabletop game; one agent alone to infiltrate the compound (and it was an awesome location that could make for a brilliant model) and free the hostage. But as the guys discuss, the music in this movie is just horrendous. I mean it could easily  be used at a poison control center to help induce vomiting. Anyway, I stumbled on this fantastic re-cut of that opening sequence with classic Bond music and a whole new title sequence - so this ones for you Brad! Never Say Never Again Classic Bond

I love my spy-fi stuff as followers of the blog will know, so when I found out Jarrod has his own podcast called "MI:6 Rookie Agents" that talk about ALL the Bond movies I was super excited. The "MI:6 Rookie Agents" podcast falls under the "OHMSP" (the photo above - there are several other podcasts that I highly recommend that also fall under the OHMSP heading all talking about Bond as well) where he and his brother Jason take two of Jarrod's friend's who are not familiar with the Bond franchise, through the entire series one movie at a time. It's both really fun and interesting to get what is essentially a "newbies" perspective on the franchise, along with Jarrod and Jason's expertise - and let me tell you, Jason is a Bond encyclopedia! The production value of this podcast is top notch and a whole lot of fun to listen to, highly recommended for any Bond fan.

*I listen through Podcast Player on my phone, but you can also find both on Podbean and iTunes as well*

But my real hope is that Jarrod and Jason will do a podcast dedicated to Victory Games amazing James Bond role playing game - this is my collection. I have everything except one adventure and two of the supplements. I've heard them speak briefly about the game on their podcast and that it was one of their favorites when they were kids. This was one of those games I was absolutely obsessed with as a kid too - and it really was the game that got me building models and terrain specifically for the tabletop and specific encounters. So fingers crossed that they will do something in the future as I'd love to hear about their thoughts and experiences with the game.

What was really great about each individual adventure was the amazingly detailed maps that they came with. One of my very first large scale terrain pieces was Auric Enterprises from the Goldfinger adventure. I remember scaling up the map of the facility so it could work with my N Scale cars and figures I had from my model trains. I really wish I had a photo of the model! I do remember my step-father not being too pleased with me that I cut up an extra window screen to make my fencing for the facility though lol

They also came with these boss envelopes that said "For Your Eyes Only" that would hold props for the mission - like briefings, letters, maps, transmissions, etc. Anything that could be used as clues that the gamemaster could hand the players to help them complete their mission. Great stuff!

I know last time I mentioned I was continuing on with my Jonny Quest project, well, as usual I got sidetracked. This time with a new Zorro project. Here's a quick peak at the table. 

I think it was the mariachi band that made me lose focus on the Quest gang - who doesn't want a mariachi band on the tabletop??!! And with a dancer no less.

And a couple of amigos. I still need to go back and rebase all my Zorro figures from earlier this year to these new thin clear bases though.

Now for winter farm projects... how mad is it that we are actually building an extension onto the barn!? That means another 8 stalls added to the existing 6. I guess I need to think positive and realize job security.

Lastly, I managed to get a couple more followers of the blog (I am all of one away from fifty lol) - I'd like to thank Steve Hamner and Doctor Merkury (Jayson) for following along, very much appreciated guys!

Until next time,

Thanks for looking!

Ivor

Out Of The Night, When The Full Moon Is Bright...

Comes the horseman known as Zorro!

Disney's Zorro television show from the late 50's starring Guy Williams is an absolute favorite of mine. When I came across these brilliant figures from Boot Hill Miniatures (Malamute on the LAF) I had to pick them up. When attending and running a few games at this years Historicon event was still in the cards, a Zorro game was right at the top of my possible choices to do.

I had an initial idea of doing all the figures and terrain in grays to give the illusion of the black and white television show.

I went back and forth on that idea for quite a while, but didn't want to pigeon hole the figures and buildings into one game - especially when I know that the buildings can be used in several other genres/games.

This is such a great pose and really reminds me more of the Anthony Hopkins version of Zorro from the movie The Mask Of Zorro than Guy Williams.

I really like the details of the hat.

Next up are the mounted versions of Capitan Monastario and Sgt. Garcia.

Again, some really nice details on the Capitan's jacket as well as the swords.

And the dismounted versions - Sgt. Garcia's pot belly is a perfect likeness!

A couple of guards.

You can't have a Zorro scenario without some helpful priests - these two are actually from Warlord Games.

These four peons are probably my favorites ofthe whole lot. I need to pick up the rest of the line too, the female civilians and the mariachi band - soon :)

I also grabbed a few casualty figures, even though they are actually Mexican Army figures - the hats don't match the other figures.

And a non-hobby photo - we've been overrun by baby rabbits around the farm this year. I  caught this little guy checking out the inside of the barn the other day when I was taking the horses out :)

More walkers from TWD All Out War on deck next, with my first ever attempt at a custom Ivor figure after I took a bath with a toaster following Liverpool's Champions League final debacle lol!

Until next time, thanks for looking!

Ivor