Now imagine a world where all disease can be cured....

I have some cool new stuff to show off.  I discovered a game by chance last year called Warfare in the Age of Madness.  It is a post apocalyptic setting.  The world's goverments have collapsed, a plague decimated the population, blah blah blah.

The world is now popluated by independent war bands.  Warfare has devolved into small skirmishes over food and other sundries.  

The game pits two warbands against each other as they try to salvage supplies.  Every time a infantry stand is removed a supply marker is placed in it's stead.  That marker can now be salvaged for points.  Killing the enemy is secondary to gathering supplies.  This theme can be seen in the Mad Max movies. People are killing each other over gasoline or guzzaline.

I want to point out here that my warbands adhere to real life political groups.  Most of them are fairly radical.  I am not making a political statement nor do I adhere to these political views.  This is merely a game and entertainment medium for me.  I refer to the Iranian revolution in 1979.  There were several leftist and radical communist groups operating in the upheaval of the Shah's government.  Granted after Kohmeni took over they had to go back into hiding.  My point is that in my science fiction fantasy reality adventure I see all these fringe groups rising up.

My first warband is a Leftist Socialist Guerilla group called the Red Brotherhood.  The founder of this religious movement found an old copy of Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book".  He created a religion around the principles in this book.  His followers are trying to re-establish control and create a new Socialist Empire.  

This is the command stand.  Armin Bradshaw is a political officer in the Red Brotherhood.  He has been charged with suppressing the region of the south eastern US.  Tactics involve going into settlements and bullying them into cooperation.  His men take young boys and train them to fight for the cause.  This force consists of irregular fighters and rag tag boys with rifles.  What they lack in cooperation they make up for with religious zeal.

These stands are the support for the force.  The lone guy is a medic.  There are still plenty of medical supplies just waiting to be looted.  He can give a shot of morphine to a dying fighter and possibly save his life.  The two guys behind the bushes are a Forward Observer stand.  They scout ahead and radio in targets to the attached mortar team.  I like how the one guy is on over watch while the other guy spies on a position.  I seem to have misplaced the picture of the .50 cal HmG team and the Medium mortar team.  Oh well.  

Here are the Boys.  They are humble rifle teams.  I fancy them armed with Mosin Nagants.  Those rifles are so rugged and durable they will be around in 100 years.  These guys try to be stealthy and sneaky.  They use numbers and surprise to overwhelm the enemy.  A stand up fight against superior firepower would be fatal to them.  

These are the regular fighters of the Red Brotherhood.  They are well equipped with light machine guns and LaWs.  If they are in cover they can stand almost any opponent.  These men can freely quote from the book and almost all of them wear the red beret.  The red beret symbolizes the cause and the blood of the fallen fighters.   They are Rifle/MG teams.

The final addition are the veteran fighters.  They wear a red headband on their kevlar helmets.  It is adorned with inscriptions of the book.  This is imbued with the power of Lenin and will protect them from harm.  Given this idealism they are fearless and will assault the enemy with their frevor.  They are all CqB (Close quarters battle) stands. 

One nice option of this game is the battle field threats.  I decided to take this stand of infected.  Yeah, there are zombies in this game.  They exist but thankfully the writer of the game did not make this a zombie game.  The infected exist but are in the background.  The idea is that you may run into them if you are unlucky.  At most the game supports two stands of these guys.  Whoever has a team closer to the infected stand allows their OPPONENT to control the infected.  They are hard to take down.  I have another stand of these bad boys to paint up.  They are on the table.

My next army is currently in the works.  It is a mechanized force that I am very excited about painting.  The reason being is that I get to paint American vehicles in ww2 German camo schemes.  This force is a rebirth of the German Nazi war machine.  They claim to be Hitler's 4th Reich.  The first picture is a pair of m113 complete with camo netting and stowage.  

 The 4th Reich stockpiled as many weapons and vehicles as they could in preparation for the uprising.  Most of their weaponry is second hand US surplus.  This means they are mostly using old M16s and other cold war weaponry.  A few of the men will have MP40s and Mauser rifles and MG42s.  In all their preparations they did not plan on the apocalypse happening.  This Opel Blitz truck has been kitted out with steel plating and sand bags.  The gunner still needs a little work to be complete.  He does not have hands as I had to clip his rifle off.

 Here is my favorite stand so far.  This is a German Flames of War officer kitted out with an m16 and an ammo bandolier.  He looks great.  The sculpting part came out better than I thought.  He and his assistant will look great with pea dot SS camo.

 Here is the back view where you can see his rifle.

The last photo are objectives and booby traps markers.  The two stands on the right are supply caches that my warbands will fight over.  The stand in the back is a trip wire next to a tree.  The stand with the three lumps is a mine stand.  You can opt to make a stand an engineer team.  This lets you place a mine or IeD and also allows you to diffuse the ones the enemy places.  Booby traps are unique in that they are deployed secretly. You find them after one of your teams bumbles into one and it blows up.  

I have a few house rules for booby traps that make them less deadly but more capable of immobilizing a team.  When a team moves within 4" of the stand your opponent forces you to make a teamwork check.  If your team passes the stand is placed and you have the option to immediately move outside of the threat zone on your next turn.  If you fail then the team has triggered the trap.  On a 1-3 the booby trap goes off.  On a 4-6 the team is immobilized by almost setting off the trap.  They can choose to move and set it off or have an engineer team move up to assist them in disarming it.  Think of the scenario where someone steps on a mine, hears the click and stops in their tracks.  

Of course if the engineers fail to disarm the bomb then both teams make damage rolls for being caught in the blast.  

This is a great game.  I am working on the SS Hitler Jeugend infantry teams.  I also have a warband of battle hardened survivalists.  They are few in number but very hard to kill.  

A somber note...

I am taking a break from gaming to mention something that has changed my life forever.  My father passed away on Memorial Day.  He had stage 4 cancer in his lungs and lymph nodes.  I do not think he ever much of a chance of winning the battle against cancer.  

My father was a sailor and a welder.  He loved playing the guitar.  I played bass with him one summer.  We played several songs.  What I remember the most was we played Roxanne by the Police.  

My time with my father was brief.  He made some mistakes very early in my life that caused my mother to leave him.  He eventually gave up contacting her because he felt guilty about the whole thing.  The guilt stayed with him his whole life and prevented him from re-establishing contact with me.  But as for me and my faith in Christ I have the ability to forgive.  Because Christ has forgiven me I am able to freely forgive.

I made the decision to find him in 2007.  I wanted closure and a relationship with him.  I forgave him for never being there.  Not having a father in your life makes things very difficult.  Believe me, it does.  I am happy to know that the last conversation I had with him over the phone was concerning what I said above.  

I have a wife and two children.  I am committed to them and will love them and support them until I to die.  Someone told me I will never be half the man my father was.  That is far from true.  I am far better than my father will ever be.  I would like to think that he is happy that I did not follow in his mistakes.  

As my dad would say "Keep on pickin' (the bass)".  I will.  I definitely will.

Ronald Lewis Brow

February 27, 1953 - May 25, 2015

Somebody stole it, raced it and brought it back!!

I have been very busy for the last few months.  My wife and I have a new addition to the family.  

This little guy's name is Theodore.  He had some complications at birth.  After being in a NiCU for a few weeks he had some lung complications.  I am happy to say he is past all that and can breathe on his own.  One nice thing about having kids is that if you wait long enough you may have a dedicated wargaming partner and painter.  

Since I am on display here I will share a few pictures of my daughter Madeline.  She will be 2 in October.  Madeline is all energy and is constantly on the move.  It is a surprise to me I have accomplished so much hobby wise while having a family.  My advice to you younger guys is that you do get some down time.  It is not a often as when you are single.  But I would rather have a family then being single.  I work my hobby time around my family.... it is not the other way.

I have finally completed my DbA Athenian II/5 army.  It was a long time coming.  The first picture is what the Athenians get as a core.  There is a General Spear stand, 4 Sp stands, 1 Psiloi, 1 Light Horse and 1 Cavalry.

This photo shows what your options are for the force.  The first photo are the mandatory 8 stands.  Every Athenian army has those guys.  You get to choose between 3 Sp or 3 Ps and 1 Sp or 1 Ps.
I mixed up the 1 / 1 choice with some Peltasts.  The 3 Psiloi are supposed to be Athenian sailors wielding slings and javelins.

Here is one army option with lots of Spears and minor Psilio support.

The next option has the minimum Spear units and lots and lots of Psiloi.  This is a great force for defending lots of difficult terrain.

 Here are the Athenian Cavalry.  I had much more fun painting this unit than I anticipated.  I used to try to paint 28mm cavalry and I hated it.  6mm is much more satisfying per time invested on the models.

This last photo shows off some Thracian Peltasts being supported by Athenian horse.  I made the choice to not paint designs on their shields.  I felt like the army will lose some of it's character if every shield is an elaborate design.  These guys did not care about that.  I still need another 9 stands of these guys to complete the DbMM list.  I can always add more detailed shields.

A friend of mine showed me how to make my own storage boxes from cardboard, foam and hot glue.  He used a white box used to hold magic the gathering cards.  They are very easy to make and very inexpensive too.  The foam gently grips the models and keeps them in place.  This design could survive any bump or impact.  

See how to foam grips the models and secures them.  My friend's design is great.  I will never have to spend 100s of dollars on foam army cases.

This box stores the entire army.  I wrote the army list info on the box for easy reference.

In other news I have also finished my Hordes of the Things army.  This borrows from the Greek Athenian army.  What you are looking at is quite a time sink.

This is the sacred grove that serves as the stronghold for the Greek Heroic army.  Think of the old Fairy ponds from Zelda.

Here are the Cyclops that serve as a behemoth in the army.  They were recruited by Zeus on the grounds that they have to behave.  Any casualties or spoil are free game to them after the battle.

These models are from the 15mm Magister Militum fantasy range.  They are actually Ghouls.  I modified them slightly to make them more mono-eyed.

 The last showcase is my slow project.  These stands are going to be in my King Triton HoTT army.  You have already seen Gary the Octopus.  I also have a Behemoth water elemental stand.  It is from MM's 15mm fantasy range.  The last stand is a scratch built Aerial / flyer stand.  It is a group of Tornadoes.  I cannot remember the ones that form over water.  King Triton has enlisted nature itself to wreck revenge on the surface dwellers.  This army is going to be mainly custom built stands.  So it naturally will have very slow progress.  It will have lots of angry crabs and lobsters.  I tried to think of other creatures that could attack up on land.  It was hard to come with other options outside of crustraceans.  If anyone has any ideas please let me know.  The theme here is that King Triton is pissed that surface dwellers keep polluting his oceans and depleting his seas of life.  He has decided to wage war on the ungrateful surface dregs who dared to defile his domain.

This stand is a Lurker / Water Lurker (depending on the amount of water terrain) of Mermen.  I am not sure how well this stands looks.  My Mermen were supposed to be a bit lighter shade of blue.  It does make sense that their skin gives a natural camo in the water.  Their bows and the one little guy with a javelin are made from whale bones.  Their culture is akin to Native Americans in that they do not carelessly kill or waste any creatures they hunt.  In this case one whale can make a lot of arms!!  Given that they cannot walk on land they are forced to lurk near shores.  If anyone is foolish enough to get within bow shot they will be dead.  The models are supposed to look like they have just popped out of the water and are about to let loose the first volley.  The water effects did not come out the way I wanted them to.
I would not go anywhere near the water if King Triton was waging an aquatic war against dry landers.  I must mention that King Triton has a bodyguard of Gillmen Blade stands.  I have not yet found a good model for them.  KT will be riding a massive war Lobster and is a Knight General in game terms.  I do have some bipedal aquatic invaders.  I did not want to over do it with gillmen because they are a treacherous lot and only agreed to help KT because of an ancient agreement made centuries ago.  King Triton does not want to many of the gillmen as they may turn on him after the fighting is over.

I have my next two mini projects on the board.  The first one is some baggage stands for the Athenian force and the Thessalian force.  I am also going to make another Cavaly stand to replace the current Athenian Cavalry stand.  My DbMM army has 6 Reg Cv I.  I have decided to use the more lightly armed Thracian horsemen instead of the other guys (the ones pictured above).  

The next project is the other half of my Greek army pack.  This is the Thessalian army for DbA.  The blank stand is going to be replaced by the Athenian Cavalry stand.  The Thessalians get a Cavalry general.  This picture has the entire force pictured along with the baggage for defensive games.  Once that is finished I can start warring for Greece with all painted forces.  I am excited. 

I need this brain for secret, undercover, aquatic training.

I have been away for some time.  Doing this every week is fun but life can get busy.  In the time since my post I have been really busy.  I moved my painting and hobby table into a small laundry room area.  During this transition I rearranged the entire area to be what you see in this photo.  I will put up some pics of the entire area some other time.  This setup gives me 300% more room than I had before.  Instead of two lamps I have three lamps.  You need a lot of light when you paint.  I really love my setup.  Notice the top center of the picture.  My Samsung tablet is mounted on two thumbtacks.  I like to listen to youtube videos while I work.  

This new setup is awesome.  It even has the Onion page a day calender.  I suppose Dilbert calendars are not available.  

 This top picture features my current all encompassing project.  I have made DbMM and all it's glory my current wargaming project.  My entire 400 point Athenian Later Hoplite Greek 2/5 army is here.  Well, the bases are here.  I have not purchased all the models.  It is a pretty big army.  Irregular Spears are pretty cheap points wise.

 These guys are my "currently finished" Hoplites.  The center stand has a general on a white horse.  The back stands are still in the process of being finished.  I am about halfway done with those stands.  They look pretty good.  My shield painting will get better and better.  I picked ten images that Greek warriors painted on their shields.  I made each rank have a different image.  It looks good and I can see where I started and where I finished with the designs.  They keep becoming more elaborate.  The completed army should look stunning because I will have gotten much more skilled at painting the shield designs.

 This leads me to unveil my next side project!!  DbMM and DbA have a fantasy variant game.  It is called Hordes of the Things.  The game is much more flexible with unit choices.  You get 24 points and can make whatever you want.  Since I have a bunch of Greek Hoplites I figured "Why not" and made a Athenian / Greeky host.  The above picture is the completed 24 point force.  Some of the models are primed but not ready.  It has been a lot of fun designing this force.  I do love conversions.  HoTT lets you do that in abundance.

 The first guy here is a God stand.  Or Zeus as he is called by mortals.  You may wondering why Zeus has orange hair and bronze skin.  I designed the image based off of John's interpretation of the angel in Revelation.  I imagine that lowly mortals cannot fathom Zeus in his true godly form.  So they see a giant man with gleaming bronze skin and a head of hair that looks like burning fire.  Zeus' lightning bolts are mere javelins crackling with mysterious energy.  When he throws them they look like massive bolts of lighting.  I am not completely happy with how the javelins turned out.  They did not have much surface area and that made it hard to make more crackling energy effects.  I would say the the models generously gives the +6 combat resolution.

 This is a behemoth stand.  I made this a few years ago as an experiment.  My rock golem was made from a couple of pebbles I found on the ground.  I think there are a few rocks from my fish tank and some fresh kitty litter scrabble. Total cost on this guy is probably 10 cents.

 I am not using him for my Greek army.  It seemed like a good time to show him as he is mounted on a 40mm by 40mm base.  I was thinking ahead when I based him.  Hooray.

 If you ask any of my friends what kind of animals I like they will probably say Lobsters.  And if they do not say that they will say Octopi.  Yeah, I know Octopuses is wrong.  I read a book by a biologist who studied giant squid.  He is a leading authority on them.  In his book he called the plural of the cephalopod with eight arms "Octopuses".  It does not really matter what you say.  Language is all about context and I think people will know what you are saying when you say Octopuses.  If you say Octopi you will sound fancy.

 That is an odd segway into my aquatic Lurker stand.  This guy comes up out of the water to grab terrified Greeks.  Do not piss him off because he will eat you.  I actually made this for my Poseidon aquatic army.  I am going to add more later but for now Gary the Octopus will do.  He was lots of fun designing and painting.  I feel like he will chew up the furniture by being a lowly Lurker and not a more terrifying behemoth or whatever.  My advice is to steer clear of any water based terrain.  Gary is salt water friendly but he can live in fresh water.

 Check out the blow hole on the right side of his head thing.  I really like that touch.

 Aquatic Lurkers are fairly limited if there is no water for them to hide inside.  I should explain how Lurkers work in the game.  They are not deployed on the table at the beginning of the game.  They appear once an enemy stand moves into or on the edge of an aquatic piece of terrain.  I decided to make some aquatic scenery to give Gary some stomping grounds.  Here is a swamp that I made.  Look at all the lurking possibility.

 Oh Noes!!!!!  Some foolish Greeks decided to take a short cut through the swampy ground.  Gary is eating good tonight.  Those poor guys do not stand a chance.  They may beat Gary back but he can always come back later to cause more trouble.

 These Centaurs are hard to see.  But I think that reflects their nature.  They are my Rider stand.  A Rider is a unit of lightly armed fast cavalry.  They focus more on charging up to the enemy line, letting loose some arrows and then running away in tactical order.  Centaurs are a woodland creature so they would not be impeded by rough woody terrain.  These models are from MicroWorld games.  They are great and I recommend checking out their fantasy range of 6mm models.

 The only downside to the models are that they have one pose.  I made one guy with his bow lowered and pulling out another arrow.  I had a terrible time getting a decent shot of him.  The models are still great and I am excited to work on the two horde stands of fauns.

I had so much fun working on these models.  I hope you enjoyed looking at them.