Bugs and Bearers

Colouring from a Poison Dart frog

For once the tile doesn't refer to any bugs I may still have, but rather to the bugs and other beasties I've been working on for the last week or so.
I've had a pretty busy week by my standards, slowly building up from an hour's hobby related things to several hours over the week-end (something I rarely do!).
In addition to the five finished bugs, snakes and the frog (shown right) I've started other animals too.  The frog model is probably twice the size of its real-life counterpart!

Obligatory boring picture

As I said I started the week very slowly, cutting up plastic cards (the credit sized ones), kindly donated by friends and family. Gunge was added after the creatures were glued in place and undercoated with a cheap grey spray primer. I did notice that in my Halloween pack of bugs there were two distinct species of snake present, one obviously a hooded cobra and the other goodness knows - but it was different!

Another frog view

The only creepy-crawlie things I didn't get finished were a couple of spiders, due to time restricitions.
I also have found that I need the few daylight hours we currently have for painting and once t gets near twilight, I have to resign myself to either gunging, cutting, gluing etc.
Whilst stuff was drying I was also painting a little on the explorer figures, still on my paint-tray, but I;m getting there.
Here's some more pics (that's what most folk want - right ?)

The lesser-known blurry red Mexican Scorpion

Which loses its blurriness when scuttling away

Giant red ant, that turned out more brown than expected.

Also known for being blurry when running away.

One of the two finished snaked -  painted as a Gaboon Viper

Nile Cobra

Nile Cobra rear (safe view)

Four more bearers

I almost finished these four bearers, but ran out of daylight hours, there's not much left to do on them, just some detailing.
I thought I'd post them to just show I was still doing some figure painting.

Rear view to prove I don't just paint the front of figures.

Here's a photographs to show the comparable sizes of all this week's offerings:

The snakes are not far off from being a realistic scale for the figures

 And a photograph of the original critters and their painted counterparts:

I have about five of each of the above - not bad for £2 imo

Finally here's a photo of my paint-tray, showing it to be slowly emptying.

Yup it's a boring mess!

This week then has been one in which I've been getting progressively better and working on hobby-related things as and when I can - only interrupted by a single hospital visit! My  enthusiasm for this project is still unbounded as I work on getting more animals together; currently a Hippo, a Croc, a bear (yeah, I know) and another lion. I'm hoping to make Battleground this week-end and maybe pick up yet more animals.

That's it then, sorry for the poor quality photographs, but my photographer has been ill and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Progress 0 - 1 Illness

Two f the many unpainted, having strayed from the paint tray.

In the last three weeks I have managed to accomplish almost nothing towards hobby related things.
The most I have been able to accomplish in my better moments has been to keep up with the blogs I follow and like to comment upon, though even this has been a struggle at times.
I can keep from throwing up, coughing or spraying phlegm everywhere for a good ten minutes or so and sometimes for longer.
Needless to say I'm very frustrated and every time I think I'm getting a little better it lasts until I awaken the next morning.
The last time I can remember doing anything hobby-related was before I posted about my first Adventure in Jimland and of course hasn't yet been posted about, so here it is!

Paint tray from above

The majority of the figures I've recently purchased had all been  based and undercoated, using a new input of credit-card sized plastic cards from friends and relatives (great basing material imo).
I had managed to finish off the native bowmen, the four bearers, sans their loads, and even managed to finish the basing on everything that was undercoated.

Natives: with guns (10), with Hand to hand weapons (10) and bows (9)

Newly base Native guns and spears

The Natives I'd used in my first Venture were only noticeable for the fact that their bases weren't  finished, so they had become priority number 1 (back row of photograph above) all twenty of them ! (Though I really should have done the entire force of 150 Zulus they had come from, because I know I'll live to regret it!)

The new nine Native bows - I like these a lot.

The new 9 bowmen had been finished quite quickly too, lots of skin few clothes and simple bows - so not  a lot to paint.





I also cut down the longer South American style bows to the more compact African style. All of the bow-armed figures are excellent sculpts, but I really don't like bowmen standing shooting, it's such a small part of their overall range of actions/inactions.

Plastic Nail Varnish Tray.

Just in case you were wondering what the plasticky tray things are, here's a closer look:
They're for Nail Varnish, contain 12 compartments , each approx 25mm square (I don't use 25mm bases so can't check), I'd initially bought two to test if they'd work as paint trays, but only the few Vallejo paint pots I had fitted, so I quickly abandoned the idea. They do however make excellent carrying trays or temporary storage areas for figures - I use them to store casualties in my zed games until figures can be returned to their permanent storage. 

So this quick post has taken about three - four  hours, so I'll be finishing off now.
Thanks for taking the time to read and as always your comments are gboth welcomed and appreciated, my next post will probably be all about what I haven't managed to do this week!

1st Adventure in Jimland (Part Two)

The expedition initial set-up.

Last week saw me abruptly ending day five's events so I'll start this week by giving a blow-by-blow account of the 'action'
My plan as the explorers was to fall back into a skirmish line  whilst the  bearers would fall back out of range of any native assault.
A quick mention of the way the rules work are in order. Firstly you can move or shoot  but not both.
The explorers have 23 points (the leader has 28) to initially spread amongst three characteristics, namely Save, Shoot and Fight (the save ability probably being the most important).

The opposition with the explorers in the distance.

Our Stats lined up thus:
Sir Charles          :Save 15, Shoot 8, Fight 5
Henry Wharton   : Save 14, Shoot 6, Fight 3
Fred Carrington  : Save 14, Shoot 6, Fight 3
Joe Bolinbroke   : Save 13, Shoot 6, Fight 4
Unboko (Askari) : Save: 5, Shoot 4, Fight 3

The Natives opposition (Tribals) have no save and as they have only Hand to Hand weapons they only have a fight skill 4 though these skills do vary slightly.-

Turn 1 of the combat - the Natives are on the edge of the jungle.

The natives moved up to their 'real starting position (I use a bigger table than the 30" square
suggested so that figures are not "off-table" to begin with. and the explorers moved into their skirmish line.
As the Natives player I had picked the very narrow piece of terrain (approx 4" wide) with the purpose of a getting through it in one turn.
As the explorers I backed off to enable me to get two shots off (one with the opposition in cover, the second when they broke cover); I knew that I wouldn't be able to shoot through the cover and took the opportunity to back off.

Turn two with the Natives hugging the tree line

The natives as I had intended as the Native player and had anticipated as the Explorers  (- talk about split personalities!)
As intended the bearers moved away from the "bad things" (a game term) whilst everyone with a gun took a shot at the enemy.
5 Shots  and 5 misses later I realised how pathetic our gunfire was.
The next turn though the Natives would be in the open!

Turn 3, the Natives rush the firing line all of whom shoot.

As the Native player I would line up two attack on a single Explorer and one on each of the others.
The Shooting this time,  got off to a great start Henry bagged the one on the extreme right of the Native line (throwing a '3' on a D2) and similarly Sir Charles scored exactly the same, clipping the second one in the line.
Unfortunately all the  other three shots missed!
It was now 5 v 4 though in our favour.
 

Outcome of the  shooting.

The remaining Natives closed with us and I realised just how vulnerable we all were as we lined up the four melees:
First into action, Henry (Fight 3) v a Native (Fight 4) ! Gulp! Result of their D20 throws 3 v 11 - Native drops !
Charles (8) v Native (4) result 3 v 6 - another Native drops with yet another '3'.
Fred (3!) v Native (4) - 1 v 17 another Native bites the dust!
Joe (4) v Native (4) - 12 v 18 - no result.
This left the Natives with just a single man left.
The rules dictate two things of interest, one is that the combat lasts just four turns or until the Natives lose 50% or more of their force. I've already decided to only use the latter condition in future actions.
Luckily in the both the combats and the shooting no '20's were scored as this triggers an animal!

The aftermath !

Situation at the end of day 5

Day Six
We have rested well from our action of the day before and head South, discovering a deserted village and a strange creature that none of us recognised.

We posted guards around the village but the huts proved very comforting.
Our food situation, whilst not critical is causing a little concern and I have decided to return to Jim's Landing in the morning.

 The expedition has three day's worth of food left
and I probably could have pushed on another day, but hesitated in doing so.

The deserted village

End of day 6

Another  bearer bites the dust!

 Day Seven
We awoke to find hailstones crashing though the flimsy roofs of the huts and even though it was allover in seconds we still managed to lose one of our bearers and his valuable load of food.
This certainly made up my mind to head for 'home' and we thus proceeded North then Northwest over familiar territory.
We did 'bump' into a large group of Natives who thankfully ignored us.

Nine Neutral Natives

(There were nine Natives, 4 with guns and 5 spear armed, their reaction though was 'Neutral')
It was here that I diverged from the normal rules, allowing the expedition to move at two hexes a turn through already discovered terrain. In doing so they would also make a clear trail which would allow future expeditions to move at four hexes a turn. In turn I would ditch the rule that allows another expedition from any hex they had already explored.

End of day 7

Luckily, we didn't have any!

Day 8
After an uneasy night's sleep we awoke to find our belongings had been rummaged through though nothing had been taken. I suspect the nine Natives we had see the day before were the culprits!
The journey to Jimland was uneventful as we headed Northeast then Southeast arriving at twilight without further loss.

The "mighty" expedition returns triumphant!

Situation at end of game

Well, it's time to cash-in on the success(or otherwise) of the expedition.
So what now?
I had one food left, which I could have cashed in for $2 - making a loss of $3, so decided not to!
I had won one combat getting $10 and $1 for each Native - $16 total
For each new non-mountain square , without a river I get $5 +1D20 for each - total I got was $40.
For each village discovered I got $10 + 1D20 for a grand total of $52 .
Discovering a new species gave me an additional $20 +1D20 for an additional $30.
This gave me grand total of $138 + $2 (I had on hand) and a food ration worth $5.
It seems that I have made a loss though the good thing is that I needn't 'buy' new explorers, they're a one-off purchase and 'free if I choose to take them along again , Bearers and Askaris though have to be paid for each expedition.
One last 'reward' is the total of the cash-in divided by 100 (ignoring fractions) gives the explorers additional experience points. - max one per explorer in any of their abilities or characteristics.
So $138/100 gave me 1 point  to expend on one lucky explorer! (Whoop-de-doo!)
The map at least has been expanded a little

The world of Jimland has expanded - a little 

The trail created means I can get my next expedition to the last hex I visited in one day!

So overall my first adventure in to Jimland was a resounding success as far as I was concerned, exciting at times and things could turn on the draw of a card or the throw of a die.
I hope those of you that have had the endurance to follow this enjoyed it, as it'll be the mainstay of a few future posts.

In other news, I'm as ill as ever, following my bout of man-flu I've gone down with bronchitis - I'm very susceptible to things like that; I am still ingood spirits and almost back to doing some hobby-related things (this post was a real test of my endurance). I'm also trying desperately to keep up with all the blogs I regularly follow and comment upon.
Apologies once more for the poor photographs

As always, thanks for visiting and your comments, as always,  are truly welcomed and appreciated.  

1st Adventure in Jimland (Part One)

"Off we jolly well go!"

So I managed to finish off my first venture into the wilds of "Jimland" (where anything can happen as their by-line goes). The preparation was not unduly arduous, but definitely needed, a turn sheet (showing the events and results of each turn; an expedition party sheet, showing the expeditions content, members, rations and so on. I also wanted to convert the native encounter cards into an A3 chart and I'll be doing the same for animal encounters too.

Homemade Native encounter chart

The main characters

The first item of business is selecting members of the expedition from an initial budget of $300, with various values for all the personnel, food etc. that you may need.
To make things easier I more or less copied the expedition from the sample game (that can be found here: Sample_Game.pdf

 The European explorers are the mainstay of the group, but cost cash (initially at least) and still need a supporting cast of thousands (or 12 in my case).
In the above photograph from left to right we have Sir Charles Biddlestone (the leader), Henry Wharton (Scout), Frederick Carrington (Hunter) and Joe Bolinbroke (Prospector). In addition there were four Askari guards and 9 bearers with food enough for 9 days (top photo).

The initial map

As I am want to do I've been amending the game's rules to suit my own purposes, the first of which was to get rid of the squares that are used in map movement and replace them with a hex map - easily done. The Expedition's are based at Jim's Landing (a coastal hex - there are no coastlines in the original) . In my first game I wanted to test my rules for coastlines and would follow the coastline east of Jim's landing (and why not?) 
I also amended the terrain table to include an initial terrain type in addition to the four used.
 So the terrain types are Jungle, Mountain, Grassland and Desert, to which I added Swamp. Rivers can be a feature of any of the above and are encountered in-game.
The expedition starts in the hex NW of Jim's Landing
In the words of Sir Charles:
Day One 
Very hot and humid, compasses seem to be filling with water regularly, Henry says he think he's noticed the same Native village three times and Jim's landing at least twice! 
 We make camp a short distance from a Native village (they appear friendly enough) .

Great Start

First event card drawn, great start to the adventure- not.
The presence of a Native village or not is the next item in the turn sequence and of course I threw a six meaning there was one; the natives were Tribals with a 50% chance of being hostile. In addition they had the maximum number of them being 5 Hand to hand Weapons (HW) and 5 with bows (B). Natives can be Friendly, Neutral or Hostile, with Tribals more apt to be Hostile. 1 food down, 8 left and we've gone nowhere!

The Native Village.

Getting to the start

Day One

 Day Two
Everything quite, we head SW trying to keep an eye on the coastline. The six Natives we encounter are friendly enough and we ignore them.

Suited me at the time !

Three with Hand Weapons and three with rifles -gulp!

"Whoo-hoo we moved" - map end of turn 2

I diced for the continuation of the coastline, on a d6, 1,2 or 3 gives 1 hex side of coast, 45, two sides and a 6 would give three sides. (The coastline was extended by one side.)

I threw a '1' !

Day Three
The incessant drums through the night were  disturbing and we awoke to find one of our Askari missing, strange. We decided to head head South, once more attempting to follow the coastline, encountering no-one, but ending in a very unwelcoming swamp.

The diminished group trudges on through the swamp.

 

End of Turn 3 (and also does four turn 4 too)

Day Four

There goes another Askari

Rather than risk being lost in the swamp I decided to back-track and head North from whence we came! 
The day did not get off well as we lost yet another Askari to an animal snare in the swamp. We arrived at another village (strangely we hadn't notice it before) who seemed to not want anything to do with us (I think they were the ones who had set the snare and were probably feeling guilty). 

Day Five:

And a bearer !

A ferocious  wind caused great anxiety as we headed SW circumnavigating the swamp one of our bearers seemed to have been swept away by it too, luckily he wasn't carrying anything . Frederick and myself were also battered about a bit, but being made of stouter stuff we survived with minor bruising only.
Henry noticed some suspicious looking fellows trying to ambush us and we prepared for an assault.
We saw them off without any loss of life on our part.

Two explorers and an Empty bearer were  the targets of the '3' I threw , Frederick and Sir Charles both made their saving rolls whilst the unfortunate bearer did not.
There were six spear armed (HW) hostile natives who were successfully scouted out giving the Europeans a slight advantage. 
The initial part of any encounter is the Native and Expedition player placing terrain pieces alternatively on pre-designated areas. As the Expedition player I would want clear fields of fire, whereas as the Native player I wanted to be able to use the terrain blocking line of sight to enable me to get closer to the expedition (talk about split personalities!).

I'm very sorry to say that that's where I'll be leaving it for this week' having almost recovered (99%) from the aches and pains I was suffering with, I'm now stricken with a heavy dose of man-flu and once more almost bed-ridden! (You were probably getting bored too I'm guessing). Rather than gunk up my lap-top with the various excretions I am currently emitting I'm resting up.  I may well post part 2 before Monday next, dependent upon how quickly I recover.

Normal services will be resumed asap

Thanks for visiting and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.