No, I-- you know, I remember eating carpet. Not so much the lasers and the robots though.

My painting goals for the year have fleshed themselves out.  I am working on my Ming Chinese
for the moment.  After that is finished I will finish the Hardened Survivalists for Warfare in the Age of Madness.  I will then jump over to another Irregular Wars force.  It will be something European.  So far the Hollanders and the French Adventurers are drawing my attention.  My last goal is to work on the Dew Scavengers for Warfare.  The vehicles for the Dew Heralds and the Dew Regulars are in the mail as I type.  I am really excited about getting those models.  I have some cool modeling plans for those vehicles.

 I have discovered a new game.  It is called "Irregular Wars".  The game features warfare between nonprofessional troops in the 15th and 16th century.  It covers the entire world with armies from Europe, the New World, the Middle East, the far East and the Pacific Islands.  I actually like this game more than DbA for several reasons.  It does not replace the game but it almost comes close.  If I had to choose what to play I would pick Irregular Wars.

The game simulates irregular warfare quite well.  For such a simple game it had a lot under the hood.  I missed this complexity until I played a test game between Dutch privateers and the Ming Chinese.  The Dutch were riddled by disease after rolling on the logistics table.  The Chinese had a few stragglers to the battlefield but nothing else bad happened.  That is the thing about this game.  Your beautifully painted forces that you planned out for weeks could not make it to the table.  If you think about how expeditions to the new world reached their destination with half the company they set out with it makes sense.  The pre game setup enriches the narrative and makes the game more enjoyable.  I advise caution if you get mad about bad things happening to you before the game starts.

The other cool mechanic is the Lord's command range.  If units are outside of it during the action phase they act on their own initiative.  Sometimes you get lucky and roll a 6 and can move the unit freely.  Be prepared to have companies sit still when they should advance or rush forward when they should sit still.  Pro tip:  Do NOT let your unreliable companies get out of your Lord's command range.  I learned this the hard way.

At the start of the battle you have a few reliable companies that are guaranteed to show up (well,almost...).  You then pick 5 optional companies from your nation's list.  You get to roll a d6, d4, d3, d2, or 1 for the unit's quantity depending on what it is.  If you roll high your lord has lots of men flock to his banner.  The Ming and the Dutch both rolled poorly on the mustering of forces.  It is a totally random feature that makes every game different.  This can be a turn off to new players because a few poor rolls will tilt things one way or the other.  The logistics rolls can even this out.  The Dutch had so many poor rolls because of a "Unhealthy Climate" card.  It reduces logistics rolls by 1.  You can also use terrain to play the defensive game and whittle down the enemy's forces.

That leads me into the last cool feature of this game.  Each player draws 3 cards from a special deck of 52 cards.  These cards can affect the game quite a bit.  The "Unhealthy Climate" card is one example. Other cards are "Rain Clouds" which stop all black powder weapons from firing for a turn.  I have only played one game so I am not to familiar with the full extent of the cards.

Irregular Wars is available for $14.99 on Wargame Vault.  I did not get any benefits for promoting this great game.  I wish I would but you do not always get free stuff.  I do it because I find the period intriguing and the game is cool.  I was very pleased to see that there is a lot of subtlety in the game.  It was very easy to overlook it because of how simple the game rules reads.  I also want to say that the rules are very thorough and well written.

I am currently working on my Ming Chinese forces.  They have loads of cheap levy infantry and can do wave attacks.  If you roll super high and take all the levy options you can have a total of 18 Wei-Suo Levy on the table.  Keep them in range of your general or all hell will break loose as they either rush forward or stay still or flee.  My first experience with them was terrible as I rolled poorly for the muster and managed to keep most of them out the General's command range.

Here are the Ming Grenadiers.  The green bushes are actually smoke from the clay pot bombs they are about to throw.  There is a spearmen in the back hanging out.  Grenadiers are great for damaging the enemy and they have great movement ranges.  I do think grenadiers in general need the "Loose" trait. They are few in number and it makes sense that they would be skirmishers.  They need support because they do not fare well in combat.

 These are the banner men for the Ming General.  The triangular flags are actual Ming banners.  I wish I had more knowledge about the flags the Ming used in battle.

 The next two pics are of the compulsory Wei-Suo Levy companies.  One of these stands have shown up before.  I am excited about the Baccus 6mm retainers.  I want to add more farming implements into the spear mix.  I may even add a few pole arms to make them look cooler.

 The horse men stand with 6 figures is the general's stand.  The banner men from above are destined for those empty spots.  The other stand is just a normal cavalry stand.  I used Baccus armored archers.  They were given lances cut from a straight pins.  There is evidence of Chinese horsemen using only bows or crossbows.  Some of them used lances and had bows as well.  I feel the modelling possibilities are very open.

The next three pics are of my favorite model in the army.  The Ming used rocket launchers in combat. I used plasticard, wires of differing thicknesses and straight pins to make it.  It took some time but I feel it looks great.  I did some research and saw a picture of the model available from Irregular miniatures in the 6mm range.  I almost bought but it had a pack camel.  Camels in China?  I decided to scratch build it myself because it was such a simple design.  The launcher is missing wheels.  This launcher is bodily picked up by two of the crews and humped to the next location.  It can be moved one base width in the action phase.  The other two crew carry the extra rockets.

These crossbow men are also repeat offenders.  They are Levy archers.  Their quantity is determined by a d4.  The only downside is that they are unreliable.  

Here are some of the mercenary troops that supplement the mass of useless levy.  They were made with Baccus Ashigaru, straight pins and pieces of a credit card.  I had a lot of fun making these guys.  The halberdiers on the right look a little more irregular then the spearmen.  I also included the Ming symbol on their flag.  It needs something else...probably a border.  From what I could tell most Chinese flags had a border.  

 These horsemen are the wild barbarian tribes that throw their lot in with the Ming.  They are great at shooting and moving around the battlefield.  I have not figured out how to use them because their movement range can put them out of the general's command distance in one turn.  The models are Baccus Huns at the gallop.  They look great.  Once I figure out how to paint them it should be easy to finish them up.  I feel that they played in character quite well.  They ran to far away, stayed put, then raced back across the Ming lines and started shooting at the enemy.  Barbarian conscripts must have been a headache for generals as they were a liability.  I really felt that way as I watched them run wild over the battlefield.

Is the album selling? Cuz I only see two of you.

I played my first battle of Warfare in the Age of Madness.  I must be mad because I played the game solo.  The two forces that were recently painted were the combatants.  These are the 4th Reich and the Leftist Gureillas.  The game dispelled the theories that I had about how the game performs.  I will give my thoughts at the end of the report.  All of the terrain is scratch built except for the blanket.  I apologize for the sun in several shots.

The objectives are set up in the general center of the board.  The Infected horde is near the middle as well.  It is contesting the objectives.  A supply marker cannot be scavenged if a enemy or non player enemy is within 8 inches.  A NpE is an infected stand, Marauders (armed looters and bandits) and booby trap/mines/IeD stands.  You have to neutralize the threat before scavenging the supply markers.  The 4th Reich won the dice off and decided to be the blue player.  This forces the other player or red player to set up first.  Their recon stand gets to move for free (they do not have one).  After the recon move the entire blue player force gets a free move.  When the game starts the red player gets to move first.  Being the blue player is advantageous but it can tip your opponent off to your strategy.  

Another caveat is the game's weapon ranges.  A bound is 4".  Units fire according to the number of bounds.  An assault rifle team can fire 2 bounds.  A HmG team fires 4 bounds.  Rifle/Mg teams are 3 bounds.  It never felt realistic to me.  I changed it to this method.  

The game ranges say 1 bound is a 3+ to hit.  Ranges out to 4 bounds are 4+.  Anything beyond that is 5+.  A rifle team's range is 3 bounds.  The ranges now have 3 bound.  This means a rifle team can fire a 3 / 6 / 9 bounds.  The rifle team hits on 3+ from 1 bound away.  It hits on 4+ on bound 2-4.  Bounds 5 - 9 hit on 5+.  Hitting at more distant ranges can be difficult if units are in cover.  It means that units caught in the open are likely to be pinned and hurt by fire.  It appeared to be balanced during my playtest.  I talked to the game designer by email about this.  He said that the shortened ranges was to make the game more tactical.  It makes close combat oriented forces able to get into melee much more easily.  I realize that this makes close quarters battle and blade teams harder to use well.  I think the range changes accurately reflects modern combat.  Just look at the Civil War for an example of how accurate fire affects troops moving in the open.      

 This is after the 4th Reich's elements have moved out.  It is hard to see but the tracks are in column on the bottom left corner of the field.  The recon Rifle/Mg and the sniper team are near the center beneath the swamp.  The mechanized troops deployed out of the truck and went on alert.  The M113s  also went on alert.  I made a mistake with the recon team by leaving it in the open.  The leftists are set up in the woods on the opposite side of the board.

 The Leftists moved up the board.  Half of the force headed for the irrigation fields and cover.  The other half moved around the barn.  The FO set up at the corner of the barn and called down medium mortar fire on the 4th Reich recon team.  They took a wound.  The 50 cal team set up at the edge of the woods to cover the advancing infantry teams.
The infected activated and started to move.  This set off all the alert marker teams.  The Infected ate two volleys of .50 cal rounds and an assault rifle team's shooting.  It finally went down.  If used correctly Infected can really cause problems for you.
The 4th Reich turn went well.  The recon pulled back into the woods and scavenged a supply marker.  The m113s advanced into the cover of the woods and put some fire on the leftist teams in the fields.

The Leftist turn 2 was more moving and not much shooting.  The mortar team was silent.  The 50 cal team fired at the m113s but did not cause damage.  There was some rallying of the infantry teams.
The 4th Reich turn 2 started with the infantry teams and the MG team deploying from the m113s.  The Recon team stayed put while the medic team moved to heal it.  The Opel Binz truck started to move across the river.

 Turn 3 was pretty bloody for the leftists.  The m113s and the mg team accounted for at least two team losses and some suppression.  The Leftists in the fields were pinned down and unable to do much.  The rest of the leftist army moved into position.  The Opel Binz truck moved up to the swamp.  The recon team was patched up by the medic.

 Turn 4 was unfortunately the last turn I was able to play.  The Leftists set off the booby trap set by the 4th Reich.  A Leftist Rifle/Mg team's LAW took out an m113.  A few more Leftist infantry teams were hurt by fire and pinned down.  A lone CqB team took fire from several 4th Reich teams.  It was down to one wound and was pinned.

 This is where the game stopped.  The tally at this point was probably in the 4th Reich's favor.  They had inflicted several losses on the enemy and taken a supply marker.

The battle was a fun one.  I definitely play mechanized forces better than foot based ones.  The 4th Reich had Hawkeyes as a special trait.  It makes them better shots.  This ability really made up for their lack of numbers.  One nice thing about WitAoM is that you have the option to make large forces of poor troops or small elite units.  The options are endless!  The 4th Reich's tiny force performed very well even though they were outnumbered.  The leftists rolled a very poor deployment set up.  They had some open space to cover and could not reach it quickly enough.  The m113s were able to scoot up the board and pin them down.  Close quarter battle teams really need some troops in front of them to cover their advance.  Putting them up against long ranged teams is a sure way to get them killed.  I am surprised that the Leftist force requires more finesse than the mechanized one.  On the last turn the Leftists started to hurt the 4th Reich's troops.  But I doubt it would be enough to turn the battle.  I should have used the mortar team more.

This kitteh earns the most annoying player award.  He repeatedly tried to walk into the middle of the battlefield.  His goal was to sit down and stare at me while his tail bumped terrain and figures.  To make matters worse he weighs around 25 pounds.  He settled for the tupperware container as a compromise.  Chairman Meow won the MaP award.

Carl, I see you noticing my braids....No, I'm not.

This is a super special entry.  I just finished my next warband for Warfare in the Age of Madness.  I do not in any way agree with the political and ethical views of these armies.  Every thing I create is purely for my love of science fiction and post apocalyptic action.  My advice:  Do not read into this.

Here is my fancy new Hilter Jeugend Panzer division force.  Supporters of Hilter hid in America after the war.  They secretly stockpiled weapons from the American industrial war machine.  At some point in the future these idealists were going to cause an uprising and restore the Hilter's reich to it's former glory.  Although this time the revolution would be on American soil.  This new 4th Reich would lead to the glory of all Aryan people.  

The first picture is the completed force.  It is completely mechanized.  The army racial traits are Hawkeyes and Glass Jawed.  This means they can shoot better and are reluctant go get into close assaults.  The soldiers are not cowards.  They do not have many numbers and their officers have to be careful about close range assaults.  There are not many blue eyed, blonde haired people after the apocalypse.

This is a Zvezda German Opel Blitz truck.  It has been modified with sand bags and metal plates for protection.  The truck has a German feel that makes it fit the character of the army.  The camo pattern is based on one of the late war tank patterns.  The 4th Reich tried to stay as pure to the originals as possible.  

 Notice all the ammo cans in the back of the truck.  This model has a soldier with an MP40.

Here is one of the M113 ApC the Hilter Jeugend soliders use.  It has some stowage and some camo netting.  I want to add some bushes.  The Germans used lots of branches and foilage for camo.  They still do from what I heard while in the Army.

This is the other track in the force.  It has a TC in the commander's hatch.  The TC has a few 50 cal ammo cans and some sand bags on the top deck.  I realize that doing this is a green habit of someone who has never had stuff fall off a vehicle.  I almost had a 240B ammo belt fall off the side of a M113 one time.  It was scary because if the tracks had run over the rounds they would have cooked off.  It looks cool.  I can let the functionality of the placement of the sand bags and ammo pass.

Here are the objective markers.  The opposing forces each place two of these.  They get victory points for looting them by making a teamwork roll.  The Hilter Jeugend force has average teamwork (4+).

Here are the booby trap base and the mines base.  The booby trap is placed at the beginning of the game in a strategic spot.  The mines are laid by engineers as a deterrent to entering an area.  If a unit gets withing 4" of the mines (or booby trap) it can possibly go off.

The two rifle/Mg teams.  One of them has a MG42 and the other an M60.  Most of the men have M16s.  There is a Mauser rifle in there too.

These are the assault rifle teams.  The closer stand is an engineer stand.  There are two little shovels to show this.  The AR teams also have rocket launchers.

I had an issue getting this photo to not look weird.  The larger stand is a rifle/Mg team recon stand.  They give support to the dedicated sniper stand.  This sniper has the only headgear in the force outside of the TC on the m113 and the commander.  These guys range ahead and locate supplies for the main body.  They have enough fire power to pin down enemy stands but can be overrun quite easy.

This is the command stand.  He has an M16 strapped over his shoulder.  His assistant is there for protection.

The last two stands are the Medic and the machine gun team.  The medic has the distinction of being the only older guy in the force.  The other men are all much younger.  He has grey hair. 

My goal with this force was to get a really German military feel with more modern weaponry.  I think I pulled this off and am mostly pleased with the results.  The camo smocks the men wear are based off of SS camo pea dot and some fallschirmjager patterns.  I am excited to put these guys up against my other painted force.  The motivation to paint things increases when you refuse to play with unpainted models.

Here is my next project for WiAoM.  This is a very small and compact force.  They are a small group of battle hardened survivalists.  Survival has been a part of their life for a very long time.  This team is hard to kill and can hopefully really punish an attacker.  It consists of 2 rifle teams, 2 assault rifle teams, a MG team, a medic, a sniper, a commander and a booby trap.  One of the AR teams is an engineer who can lay some mines.  Engineers can also defuse a mine, booby trap or an IeD.  

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.