The Menace of Ultron Part 2: A Super System 3 AAR

A few nights later we picked up where we left off. My friend Chris couldn’t make it, so we decided this was that moment in so many comic books where the two hero teams combine to fight a common enemy! Matt quickly chose Captain America as his new, combined hero team leader. He figured if there was one guy besides Professor X that Cyclops would defer to, it would be Cap.

Turn 3

The heroes got initiative.

SNIKT! Wolverine charged down the alley and ripped into Dreadnought #1. His adamantium claws are pretty impressive against mindless robots. He netted 6 Vitality of damage to the Dreadnought, dropping it to 1 and kniocking it back 5 inches!. Despite this, Dreadnought #1 was barely able to remain upright. But the Dreadnought’s electrified armor shocked him back for 7 Vitality! (Turns out we were doing this wrong; Wolverine shouldn’t have been shocked for anywhere near that much damage. But what the hell. It’s cinematic.)

In response, Dreadnought #1 ran forward and attacked Wolverine, but missed.

 

Iron Man fired of a repulsor blast at Ultron and hit. What’s impressive is he actually managed to do 3 Vitality worth of damage, as Ultron rolled miserably to resist.

In response, Ultron attempted  to telekinetically grab Iron Man and bring him into hand to hand. Problem is, that’s not how the power works. TK grab just roots someone to the spot. Even if it succeeded (which it didn’t), it wouldn’t have left me with a  lot of tactical options; but since I had already spent the points to use the power this round, I was stuck with it. The first of several of my blunders.

Storm used her wind control to transport both herself and Colossus 9″. Then they landed.

Dreadnought #2 attacked Wolverine and hit; combined with his Damaging Aura, the attack did a total of 4 more Vitality damage and knocked him back 2″ into the wall of a nearby building.  Wolverine was starting to look pretty battered.

Cyclops fired at Dreadnought #2, but missed.

Madame Hydra used her short-range teleport ring to get to the top of a nearby building. Once there, she took a shot at Storm and hit, but Storm managed to avoid any damage.

Colossus moved towards Ultron, intent upon closing with him in hand-to-hand combat next turn.

Dreadnought #3 fired at the approaching Colossus and hit, but the big mutant just shrugged it off.

From behind a pile of junk, Hawkeye took a shot at Ultron and hit, but did no damage.

The Vision floated towards Ultron, still intangible and out of sight for any ranged attack.

Captain America threw his shield at Dreadnought #3, and scored a whopping 17 goals on his attack! The end result, however, was not as impressive: the Dreadnought suffered 4 Vitality worth of damage, leaving it with 3. Cap used his remaining AP to move through the alley to assist Wolverine next turn, retrieving his shield along the way.

Turn 4

The initiative was a tie, broken by Captain America’s higher AP total. The heroes went first.

Storm took off and blasted Madame Hydra with a lightning bolt, but missed.

Ultron used his Dominate power on the weak-willed Colossus and succeeded, meaning he would be able to control Colossus when Matt activated him next. Then he moved back into the park.

Captain America flung his shield in a spray attack, attempting to hit both Dreadnoughts, but only hit  one. It resisted all damage. In return, Dreadnought #1 charged Cap and attacked, scoring enough net goals to drop his Vitality to zero and knock him back into the building. (Matt really rolled terribly on his defense rolls.) Captain America was KO’ed!

Wolverine spent 4 AP to Regenerate, scoring 8 goals, restoring 8 Vitality! Back in the fight, he used 6 AP to Flurry, scoring a net of 7 goals of damage on each Dreadnought, enough to destroy them both! Take that, Bub! Then he moved past their smoking and sparking bodies towards Ultron, his intentions obvious.

Dreadnought #3 used all his power pool for his Damaging Aura and left nothing for Ranged attack, so if he wanted to do anything, he’s have to attack in melee. I knew that Colossus wouldn’t fight back, so I figured I might take the opportunity to do some damage to Colossus. This was blunder #2. The Dreadnought charged and did 2 Vitality of damage, knocking Colossus back 4″ and knocking him prone.

Iron Man shot at Dreadnought #3 and hit, but did no damage. Then he flew atop the same building as Madame Hydra, getting into position to ruin her day next turn.

But Madame Hydra teleported away, this time to the street. She shot Cyclops for 5 Vitality of damage, almost knocking him out. Then she used her remaining AP to close the gap, moving into hand-to-hand.

Cyclops fired at Madame Hydra at point-blank range and missed. Maybe he was still seeing stars from her shot.

Hawkeye took a shot at Madame Hydra, attempting to Entangle her. He missed, and also missed Cyclops, who he could have hit by accident.

The Vision continued to drift closer to Ultron, still intangible.

Of course, Matt waited until the last possible second to activate Colossus, who was mine to control. Unfortunately for me, I had to spend 2 of Colossus’s measly 5 AP just to stand up after being knocked prone by the Dreadnought. Even with his extra movement, Colossus couldn’t reach Hawkeye this turn to punch him into next week like I wanted. And at the end of the turn, control of Colossus reverted back to Matt.

Turn 5

With Cap KO’ed, Matt nominated Cyclops as his new team leader. This allowed Ultron to seize initiative for the first time this game.

 

With Wolverine bearing down on him, Ultron did the sensible thing. He fired at Wolverine with full power. Unfortunately, he missed. So he did the next best thing. He used his remaining AP to move farther away.

That didn’t help him for long. Wolverine charged and easily closed the gap, but despite scoring 8 goals to damage Ultron, the robot was able to resist all damage.

Madame Hydra shot at Cyclops at point-blank range, but she missed.

Vision finally got into the fight and tried a phase attack against Dreadnought #3, but missed.

Colossus charged into combat with Madame Hydra, attacking her from behind and knocking her senseless. Madame Hydra was KO’ed!

Hawkeye successfully Entangled Dreadnought #3, rooting it to the spot. Despite this, Iron Man still missed when he shot at the Dreadnought moments later.

Finally, Storm blew Dreadnought #3 to pieces with a lightning bolt that did 6 goals of unresisted damage. Dreadnought #3 was destroyed!

Turn 6

Ultron, now alone, faced the combined forces of Iron Man, Vision, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus and Wolverine. It was pretty clear he’d be defeated eventually, and it was getting late, so we called it a night. Victory to the heroes!

The Menace of Ultron Part 1: A Super System 3 AAR

Well, I finally got my table finished for good and invited a couple of pals over for some gaming. I figured since I had so much fun with it last time, why not play some Super System 3? So before they came over I came up with a scenario, grabbed some Heroclix and set the table.

I decided to use more powerful characters this time around, so I chose the X-Men and The Avengers as hero teams. They needed an appropriate menace, so I hunted around until I came up with someone so badass they would just HAVE to team up to take him down: Ultron. I didn’t paint any of these miniatures: you can thank underpaid Chinese laborers for that.

For the X-Men, I chose a pretty powerful foursome: Storm, Colossus, Cyclops and everyone’s favorite psycho, Wolverine.

The Avengers’ roster is nothing to sneer at: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and the enigmatic Vision.

The bad guys: Madame Hydra and a squad of Hydra Goons…

…who just activated Ultron and a small squad of Dreadnoughts.

I originally set up a 48″ x 48″ surface, but I realized that with this many miniatures on the table, all ranged attacks would likely be at medium range or so. When given the choice of using the full 4′ x 6′ table, my friends wanted to go for it. So we threw some more terrain down and the result is shown above.

We got most of the stats for the heroes and villains from this site. My friend Matt chose the X-Men;, his brother Chris picked the Avengers. That left yours truly as the bad guys. HAIL HYDRA!!!!

Each side chose their team leader, which determines how many dice you’ll roll for initiative.  Chris and I made the obvious choices: Captain America and Ultron. Matt, bless his heart, chose the more thematically-appropriate leader for his team and picked Cyclops, even though Wolverine would have given him a better dice pool for initiative.

The Scenario

It goes without saying that if you live in Manhattan, you get used to a lot. Seems like every other week there’s a super-powered threat to the city that the Fantastic Four or the Avengers has to deal with. But it’s still a tribute to the average New Yorker that a 6 block area was evacuated so soon after the emergency broadcast went out. Then again, the nature of the emergency certainly lent some urgency to the mass exodus: Ultron.

The SR-71 Blackbird activated it’s VTOL engines about 90 feet over the apartment block. Moments later, aided by Storm’s winds, four of the mutants known to the world as the Uncanny X-Men touched down and quickly assumed a practiced formation.  Wolverine sniffed the air. “They’re this way,” he said, tugging his cowl in place and moving swiftly southward.

“Take point, Logan,” said the team’s leader, Cyclops; not that Wolverine ever waited for an order. “Ororo, go topside and look around. Colossus, you’re with me.”

“Understood,” said Storm, as a sudden gust of wind bore her aloft. The giant Russian said nothing, but a crackle of energy as he transformed into his osmium-steel form was acknowledgment enough. He fell into place a half-step behind Cyclops as they trailed after Wolverine.

 

Two blocks to the east, the whine of the Quinjet’s engines faded as the now-empty aircraft shot out over the water, leaving behind four of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers.

“Our limo is only a phone call away,” said the metallic voice of Iron Man. He turned his attention from the Quinjet’s remote controls inside his helmet display. “The X-Men have touched down about two blocks from here to the west. I’m reading the hostiles are a couple of blocks south. And Cap, they know we’re here.”

“Avengers, Assemble!” said Captain America, unslinging his star-spangled shield from his back. “Hawkeye, Iron Man: gain some altitude and see what you can find out. Vision, back me up. These idiots have no idea what they’ve done by activating Ultron. We need to put him away fast, people. Let’s move!”

“Way ahead of you, Cap,” said Hawkeye, leaping atop a nearby abandoned truck, as Iron Man’s boot jets propelled him skyward. “Less chatter would be nice.”

Captain America ignored him. “Vision, if you get a chance, don’t hesitate. Take it.”

The android’s face was unreadable. “Acknowledged, Captain.” They moved southward together.

 

“Head northeast and engage the Avengers,” said Madame Hydra, loosening her plasma pistol in its holster. “Fire at will. I want them destroyed.”

“Hail Hydra!” chorused seven of her best soldiers, snapping to attention. A moment later they were off, following her command. She had no illusions about their chances of success, but they were expendable. The most important thing was that they occupy the heroes long enough so that she could get away with Ultron. Activating him had been no easy feat, but the payoff would be well worth it. With the robot in Hydra’s ranks, there was nothing the nefarious organization could not accomplish!

Her cruel smile vanished as she saw the robot was moving away on his own, taking her three Dreadnoughts with him. “Where are you going?” she demanded. “Stop! I am in command here!”

Ultron turned and regarded her for a moment. “May I suggest you allow me free reign? I would be much more useful to you.”

“Why would I do that?” she sneered. “You are mine to control!”

“Because I am smarter, more powerful, and infinitely better suited to the task of command than you are. I have the brain engrams of Dr. Henry Pym, making me, at best estimate,approximately 6.2 times more intelligent than you. If that were not enough, my cybernetic mind can perform 360 million complex calculations per second. And I, unlike you, have fought- and defeated- the Avengers before and am intimately acquainted with their tactics and strategy, particularly with regard to fighting me.”

Madame Hydra glanced around for support, but found only the cold, robotic eyes of the three Dreadnought robots. She suddenly felt very alone. Ultron awaited her answer.

“Very well, act as you see fit,” she said. “But remember that I am in command here, robot, and you will obey me, should I give the order.” She followed after her soldiers.

Not for long, you stupid cow, thought Ultron. He turned wordlessly and strode north, through the park. His internal processors quickly wrote and executed an algorithmic program whose sole purpose was to find a way to override Hydra’s programming.  In the meantime, he would eliminate the X-Men and allow Madame Hydra and her poltroons to occupy the Avengers until he could get there. Then he would destroy them all, including those who would dare to call themselves his master.

Turn 1

We rolled for initiative. Not surprisingly, Captain America scored the most goals, followed by Ultron and finally, Cyclops; making the order Avengers-Hydra-X-men.

Not a whole lot happened the first turn other than movement. The Avengers and X-Men began to move south. The Hydra goons and Madame Hydra circled the park to the east and moved to engage the Avengers. Ultron and the three Dreadnoughts went north towards the X-Men.

Matt wanted Wolverine to go over a parked car rather than around it. We decided Wolverine could probably easily do that, so a quick Agility check was made and passed, and we decided he bounded over the car with no penalty to movement. Likewise Chris wanted Hawkeye to gain some higher ground, so he had him leap atop the cab of a stationary fuel truck. Another quick Agility check was made and Hawkeye gained his perch.

Storm and Ultron both took to the skies on their turn. Ultron spotted Storm a long way off and took a shot at her at long range. He missed. That was pretty much turn 1 in a nutshell.

Turn 2

The initiative order was the same.

From atop the fuel truck, Hawkeye could just about spy the top of a Dreadnought’s head through the trees in the park. It was all he needed. He took his shot and hit, but the Dreadnought shrugged off the damage easily.

The Hydra goons continued to move forward as a group. They didn’t get far.

Storm fired back at Ultron. Despite the long range, she hit him squarely with a bolt of lightning from the heavens, but failed to damage the robot.

Iron Man flew around a building and targeted the group of Hydra henchmen with his ranged attack, scoring seven goals. The goons failed to resist even one. The last thing the Hydra soldiers saw was a bright flash as Iron Man’s Uni-Beam knocked them senseless. Scratch one group of Henchmen!

Ultron continued to move north, but veered to the east, over the park wall. He couldn’t resist taking a shot at the hated Iron Man. He missed.

Wolverine moved south into an alley between two buildings, making a quick Agility check and hopping over a concrete parking barrier, on a beeline towards the Dreadnoughts.

Vision activated his Density Decrease power and started levitating. He took a long range shot at Ultron with his solar gem and hit, but failed to do any damage.

One Dreadnought continued towards the alley to the north, straight towards Wolverine. He took a shot at Storm flying above, but missed.

Colossus moved south, making a quick Agility check and hopping a jersey barrier with no penalty to movement.

Captain America decided to throw his shield at Ultron, with predictable results. It ricocheted harmlessly off the robot’s adamantium body.

After just watching her whole squad of “expendable” soldiers get expended, Madame Hydra moved towards cover, taking a few shots at Captain America. But Cap had his shield back by then, and her shots were blocked with ease.

Cyclops fired off an optic blast at  an approaching Dreadnought but his shot went wide. The Dreadnought took a shot at Wolverine, but missed. The last Dreadnought responded to an unspoken robotic command from Ultron to join him on the flank. Of course, the wall was in the way, but that’s no problem for a robot with energy blasters. There are no rules for attacking obstacles in SS3, so we just ruled that the wall had a Resistance of 4. It failed to resist the Dreadnought’s blast, so down it went.

It was at this point that we had to break due to circumstances beyond our control. We decided we’d pick it up in a few nights and left the table as is.

AD&D Campaign: The Tears of Yevona

Once again, I figured I’d share some of the miniatures I’ve been using for my ongoing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 campaign.  If you’re inclined to check out more, you can find some earlier posts here and here.

 

The Player Characters

First up, the PCs. Left to right: Elvar, the mage; Azrael, the bard, and Dematose, the cleric. Elvar is Reaper’s Halmar, Young Wizard (Reaper 03449). He is holding an uncorked potion bottle in his hand, and what I painted as flame is supposed to be vapor, I guess. I kind of like the flame look, even though I clearly suck at painting fire. Azrael is a Dark Sword bard from their Elmore Masterworks line. Dark Sword makes some incredible miniatures, and this may very well be the best bard I’ve ever seen. I’m ok with the paint job, even though my diamond pattern kind of fell apart halfway through. Dematose is Privateer Press’s Bastian Kinnet, Battle Chaplain of Morrow. I’m really happy with the way he turned out. Missing from the group is the ranger, Gough. He’s missing because his player owns the miniature and wanted to paint it himself. Of course, 2 years into the campaign, he’s not fully painted yet, even though my friend has painted other miniatures in the meantime. This is because my friend is a shithead.

This is not my friend’s paint job.

 

If interested, this is the miniature he chose for Gough. it’s another Dark Sword miniature, this time from their George R. R. Martin line: Wildling with Great Axe. Very cool.

The Butcher Bruvvers

If you followed the first link above, then you know who the Cudgel Gang is. When the players last encountered the Cudgel Gang, they left a few of them alive, including the dastardly leader, Quin Payden. Well, since then, Quin added some new recruits to the Cudgel Gang, and even replaced the ones who died with  some thugs who look remarkably similar. Above are the two newest recruits, the Butcher Bruvvers. These are Heartbreaker Miniatures: Half-Troll with Ball and Chain and Half-Troll with Club, from their fantasy sculptors line. In their recent rematch, the PCs got some much-wanted revenge. They managed to kill almost every member of the Cudgel Gang, including the Butcher Bruvvers. The only one who escaped was (you guessed it) Quin Payden, vowing revenge. It’s a good bet he’ll turn up again.

The toughest fairies you’ll ever meet.

Not long ago, the PCs wandered into a faerie ring and were shrunk down to tiny size. They were promptly taken captive by faeries. Since I think most faerie miniatures look like, well, fairies, I decided to use these RAFM Dark Elves instead. They’d been laying around unpainted since the early 90’s, and it gave me an excuse to paint them. Soon afterwards, the PCs were given a chance to win their freedom if they could perform a service for the Faerie Queene. She sent them on the very dangerous errand of stealing the crown of Tarkhagal, the Spider King.

Spiders!

Not surprisingly, the Spider King had a lot of spiders around as guards. The PCs had to fight their way to him, defeating swarms of these guys in the process. The tiny spiders are from Mississinewa Miniatures. The big yellow ones are from Reaper (Reaper 03055). I painted them the color and pattern of an orb spider I found online, and based them with some Halloween decoration cobwebs. In the game, the small ones attacked in swarms and had weak poison. The yellow ones shot webbing and had stronger poison.

The Spider King?

Finally the party came face to face with the Spider King. Or did they? This is Meepo, a goblin who wandered into the faerie ring years ago and escaped the faeries, only to  fall into the Spider King’s lair. For whatever reason, Meepo was immune to the deadly effects of the spider venom. Instead, it drove him mad and increased his physical attributes. The real Spider King kept him around for amusement. Meepo is an old-school Warhammer Forest Goblin Spider Rider. While I have a huge WFB Orc and Goblin army, I never used Spider Riders because I thought they looked silly. (The new ones are much cooler- looking.) I had this guy laying around though, probably the result of a trade made long ago. I figured I’d put him to use as a boss, and here he is.

The SPIDER KING!

After a long battle with lots of spiders and a crazed goblin, the PCs thought they had killed the real Spider King.  On their way out, however, they got a rude awakening. The real Spider King, Tarkhagal, dropped from his lair in the ceiling and blocked their exit. That’s him above. I looked high and low for a little crown bit I could use for this big spider, but I couldn’t find one. I even looked at charms for bracelets. No dice. Tarkhagal is Reaper’s Huge Spider (03049), and he is huge. His leg span wouldn’t even fit on a 60mm base. I should have included a picture of a regular 28mm miniature for comparison. He’s about 3 times the size of one of the yellow spiders above.

Well, the bloodied, weary and poisoned characters managed to subdue Tarkhagal and take his crown, thus winning their freedom from the faeries. They’re currently back to their normal size and continuing on their adventure.

What’s Old is New

I’ve been on a bit of an old-school miniatures kick lately, no doubt inspired by guys like the Old School Grenadier Miniatures blog (now sadly gone, it seems).

A bit about that. I first started painting minitures in the 5th grade. Since I’m 40, I’ve been at it a while. I don’t claim to be a master painter; I learn more and more every day. But back then, and pretty much right through high school, I truly sucked at it. I painted all my miniatures with Testors gloss enamel paint, which doesn’t lend itself to shading, highlighting, mixing, or just painting in general. Not that I made any attempt whatsoever at any of those techniques. Most of my miniatures looked pretty gloopy.

It wasn’t until I started playing Warhammer and 40K in college that I discovered acrylic paint. A huge difference for sure. And although I have little love left for GW, I learned a lot from their publications and my painting dramatically improved in a relatively short period of time. Since I was building armies to game with, I painted GW figures pretty much exclusively from the early 90’s -2000 or so.  Around 2003,  I took a long hiatus from both wargaming and painting, having to pack up my paints and miniatures in storage. I only started up again about 3 years ago, and now I can’t stop.

Partly because of nostaligia and partly because I look at them and cringe, I’ve decided that in between my regular projects I’ll give some of my earliest efforts the repainting they so desperately need. Here are some of them.

Everyone I know who collected miniatures back in the early 80’s had the guy on the left. He’s from the Fantasy Lords set 121: Knights. I think he’s a pretty cool miniature from that time, plus he has a bec-de-corbin. How many miniatures do you own that are similarly equipped? Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of him with his old paint job, which was a true atrocity. I never bothered to base any miniatures before I started playing Warhammer, and I see no reason to base them for repaints. Next to him is a Ral Partha Dwarf: I can’t find the number. If any of you can, I’d appreciate you telling me. I recall he was in a blister labeled “Conquistador Dwarf”, but I’ve also seen him referred to as a “Dwarf Champion”. This guy never had any paint on him before now, so there was no “before” picture to take. I did base this guy, because I’ll probably be using him in my AD&D campaign as an NPC. I’m pretty happy with the way they both turned out.

Here’s an example of my work back then. Note the lovely Testors glossy flesh color on the charging halberdier. Impressive, no? Now just imagine if he had a face, how good that would look, and you get the idea of the general quality of my painting back then.

These are the repaints. The miniatures are some classics from that era: Ral Partha’s Chaotic Knights of the Skull (01-137). Like many of the miniatures of this time, scale was all over the place. These were supposed to be 25mm miniatures but they’re more like 32mm. The halberdier’s legs are far enough apart that you could fit the knight in the first picture within  his stride.  Although I think they’re both kind of silly, they were easy and quick to paint in between my current projects. I still don’t like the miniatures, but I like to think my paint job has improved over 25 years.

I think I’ll keep repainting old stuff and posting the results from time to time.

My Pile of Insanity

Like most miniatures enthusiasts, I have an ever-increasing mountain of unpainted lead and plastic that might one day get me my own episode of Hoarders.

Well, I will not go gentle into that good night, friends. I’m doing something about it. They say the first step is to admit you have a problem. Well, I submit to you my pile of insanity. Judge not lest ye be judged. I know some of you are worse.

First up: my desk. Thousands of miniatures have been painted and, in some cases, repainted here. Considering 90% of the painting I do nowadays is for the AD&D campaign I’m running, I have to be careful about what I show so as not to give my players any warning of what’s coming. In front of the paint rack is a group of miniatures, most of which are primed black. Some have been in this state for YEARS. The current project is a group of 10 Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens. Once these are done I have 20 more to paint. You may notice the backscratcher on the right. Highly recommended for those of us who spend hours painting hunched over.

This rack contains leftover bits on sprues,  Plano cases full of painted miniatures (don’t count), old boxed sets of Grenadier and Ral Partha miniatures (one day I’ll get around to repainting them), basing materials and supplies, etc. All the white card boxes are full of Heroclix miniatures, sorted by team. There are some hidden gems here, too. For example, I have about 40 Rogue Trader Beakie Space Marines, still on the sprue. I’m saving them for a rainy day.

Here is one side of my closet. The miniatures are on the second shelf, all unpainted: boxed sets of Wyrd, Confrontation, Alkemy and Privateer Press stuff; an unopened High Elf Battle Ready Battalion; an unopened WFB Battle of Skull Pass; several unopened regiments of High Elves, including a Cavalry Patrol; my Cawdor Necromunda Gang; some Warzone stuff I bought just because I liked it; a box of Defiance UAMC Marines; a box of Wargames Factory Shock Troopers (soon to be joined by 2 more boxes en route); a Reaper Dwarf Cannon; some Mantic Dwarfs, a box of Judge Dredd Gangers I bought at Gen Con for 5 bucks; and a Clan War Crab Regiment to go with the Clan War base set I haven’t painted. It’s over by the Space Hulk game that has all unpainted miniatures in it, too.

Below that are three shelves full of mostly unpainted scenery. Yes, that’s an original Warhammer Mighty Fortress. I’ve never used it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. Three boxes of Pegasus Gothic buildings and ruins share the same shelf, along with a GW Chapel. (All those tackle boxes and miniatures cases have painted WFB and 40K armies in them, so they don’t count towards the pile of insanity.)

Here’s the other side of my closet, just for the hell of it. No miniatures here, just RPGs and card binders.

You could dive into this and never come up.

And lastly, here’s the box o’blisters. Way too much stuff to list here individually, but Reaper, Hasslefree, Pulp Figures, Armorcast, Warhammer FB, Privateer Press, Confrontation, Moonlight Miniatures, East Riding Miniatures, Wyrd, Killer B, Bronze Age, Rattrap and plenty of nameless and/or forgotten miniatures companies have at least one and most likely more than one blister in here.

If I was so inclined, I could count all the unpainted miniatures I have to paint. But I’m not so inclined.

After a recent barrage of orders, I decided I need to do something about this. I can’t keep buying stuff and not painting it. That’s craziness. So I’m doing what others in this hobby of ours have done. I’m making a plan.

Ten miniatures a week. If I can do ten miniatures a week and stop buying more than ten miniatures a week, I should make some headway, right?  Although the miniatures I paint are to some degree influenced by my needs for the AD&D campaign, that game is on a brief hiatus. So I can use the opportunity to blow through some lead. First step: start with the shit on my desk.

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve painted 20 miniatures. I’ve bought about 50. So I’m starting over. Monday-Monday…10 miniatures, no new purchases.

Starting now.

The Gun Store Heist: A SuperSystem 3 AAR

I have lots of HeroClix miniatures, but I never really got into the game. I hate the dials. While they’ve gotten better with each new release, some of the early miniatures were almost impossible to turn on the dial, resulting in more than one broken miniature from normal play. I lost count of how many Scarlet Witches I snapped off the dial, usually at the ankle.

Another thing that has improved with each new release is the overall quality of the paint jobs. Some of the early sets were atrocious. Even though they’ve improved, I touch up or completely repaint most of my HeroClix miniatures that I play with.

A little while ago I purchased SuperSystem 3 at the recommendation of pretty much everyone who plays superhero miniatures games. I decided it was time to try out my new gaming table, so I threw some scenery down, came up with a quick scenario and grabbed some Clix. First: our cast of characters:

Heroes for Hire

I’m a huge fan of Power Man and Iron Fist, so I decided they would be my heroes. I own a full run of the comic from the 70’s-80’s. Power Man is my favorite.  These are both repaints. Especially Iron Fist, since the figure I had was the “Experienced” one with the red costume, and that’s just wrong. I popped them off the dials and rebased them on urban bases.

Daughters of the Dragon

Hanging with our heroes are the gals from Nightwing Restorations, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Misty is Reaper’s Ebony Foxx, Mod Heroine (50179), and Colleen is RAFM’s Asp, Assassin. Asp doesn’t really look like Colleen Wing, but she’s the only modern girl with a katana I could find. (For some reason, the angle of this picture makes it look like someone beat the shit out of Misty Knight. She looks better than the picture would indicate.)

The Bad Guys: Constrictor, Scorpion and Shocker

I picked some bad guys of a similar power level. All of them have ranged attacks, too, which could be a challenge for the heroes, most of whom like to fight hand-to-hand.

Scorpion's Goons

Of course the bad guys need some henchmen, so I added some repainted and rebased Henchmen and Criminals, too.

The Scenario

Scorpion was never much of a deep thinker, but he knew one thing: guns meant money. If he could load up on guns (and bring his friends), he could make a killing. Guns were always in demand. Whatever he didn’t sell he could outfit his gang with. Maybe knock over an armored car or something down the road. Shocker and Constrictor, both recently out of jail, were looking for a piece of the action. Scorpion figured  his gang should be able to deal with any cops that show up. And if any super heroes try to butt in, the three of them should be able to handle it.

Power Man, Iron Fist, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are enjoying a night on the town (in costume, of course) at the Gaslight Lounge. Just as they’re leaving, they hear a loud explosion followed by an alarm.

“That’s the next block,” says Misty. “The gun shop!”

Colleen draws her katana. Luke Cage cracks his knuckles and stretches his neck. “Looks like we get to bust some heads, eh, Fist?”

But Iron Fist is already in motion, moving swiftly across the street towards the sound of the alarm. Misty draws her trusty .357 Magnum just in time to see several rough-looking men begin to load a truck with crates. They notice the heroes and draw their own guns.

It’s on!

Setup

Initial Setup

I placed the thugs near the entrance of the gun shop, along with two vehicles. Their job was to load these trucks up and make off with the guns. The Shocker just blew the front door off the shop and is supervising the loading of the pickup, along with the Constrictor, who is supervising the loading of the Hummer. The Scorpion is atop an apartment building, overlooking the battle. The heroes are just coming out of the Gaslight across the street.

Round 1

I designated Iron Fist the leader for the heroes, and Scorpion the leader for the villains. The villains won the initiative for the first round.

Shocker jumps off the back of the truck and moves to the main street where he can get a clear shot at anyone coming around the corner of the Taco Temple. Meanwhile, Misty moves to cover behind a fence and shoots at the henchmen across the street. Despite having some cover from the dumpster and Hummer, Misty manages to drop 3 of the henchmen with some well-placed shots from her .357. Rubber bullets, of course.

The remaining three henchmen return fire, but miss Misty Knight. Iron Fist uses all his Action Points to move across the street towards the Taco Temple, trying to close the gap with the villains as fast as possible. The Constrictor makes his way around the other side of the Taco Temple towards Misty, intent on stopping her from dropping any more of the gang. Power Man moves his full AP, 7″, across the street, and walks right into Scorpion’s plasma blast. Scorpion scores 3 goals, enough to hit Cage smack in the chest. But damaging him is another matter. Aside from shredding his shirt, the blast does nothing to Cage but make him mad. Finally, Colleen darts across the street, using her full AP to get as close to Constrictor as possible.

End of Round 1

Round 2

This time around, the heroes get the initiative.

Misty fires at the Constrictor, wisely perceiving him to be the biggest immediate threat, but he bullets ricochet harmlessly off his armored costume. Since he’s not afraid of Misty’s rubber bullets, Constrictor wastes no time attacking Colleen. He scores enough net goals to entangle her in his electrified coils. Colleen is trapped and takes 4 vitality as the coils begin to constrict!

Colleen tries to break free and barely succeeds. She uses the rest of her AP to close the distance with Constrictor, but she can’t attack. The henchmen open fire on her scoring an impressive four goals, but Colleen scores five, so all of them miss.

Iron Fist runs at the Shocker, leaping into the air and delivering a vicious aerial back kick! He scores a net total of 8 goals to hit, which translates (after bonuses) into 13 goals worth of damage! Shocker’s padded costume allows him to resist 7 goals, but he still takes 6 vitality, which drops him to 1! Shocker is knocked back 4″ and is knocked prone. He’ll feel that one tomorrow.

Ka-POW!

Shaking his head to clear it, Shocker rises to his feet and levels a blast at Iron Fist. He manages to hit Iron Fist, scoring 3 vitality worth of damage. Iron Fist is knocked back 2″, but his Instant Stand power allows him to easily keep his footing and avoid being knocked prone.

Power Man rips a lamp post out of the ground and advances across the street.

Scorpion sees Iron Fist flatten Shocker. He climbs down the building and aims his tail at Iron Fist. He uses the rest of his AP and fires, but Iron Fist easily dodges.

Round 3

The villains get initiative.

Have a lamp post!

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Luke Cage wants to do with that lamp post. Thankfully, Scorpion is no genius. He fires his plasma blaster directly at the advancing Power Man, once again hitting him squarely. He achieves an impressive 6 goals, but Power Man shrugs the blast off yet again, taking no damage. In response, Power Man hurls the lamp post at Scorpion.  Scorpion is a pretty agile guy, so he manages to dodge out of the way completely. Cage spends his remaining AP to move 3″ closer to Scorpion.

Shocker backs off 3″ (getting some distance away from Iron Fist seems like a smart thing to do) and fires his vibro-gauntlets at Iron Fist again, but can’t seem to get a bead on him. Iron fist charges Shocker and in a flurry of blows drops the super-villain once and for all. Shocker fails his Resolve roll to stay on his feet and is KO’ed!

Constrictor decides putting some space between him and the katana-wielding Colleen Wing might be a good idea too, so he attempts to break away from combat in order to try to entangle her again. Unfortunately, since he doesn’t possess Combat Reflexes, Colleen Wing gets a free attack on him as he turns tail and runs. Turns out turning your back on a katana is a bad idea. Colleen slashes through his armored costume, doing a net 3 goals of damage. Constrictor curses and bleeds. Then he uses his remaining AP to move away 3″ and attack Colleen. His steel coils lash out and batter her for 5 goals, dropping Colleen to the ground like a wet bag of dirt. Colleen is KO’ed!

Misty Knight uses all her AP to get as far away from Constrictor as possible, and also get out of the line of fire of the Henchmen.

The Henchmen open fire anyway but miss Misty.

Round 4

Iron Fist rolls an impressive 7 goals to Scorpion’s 2, so the heroes get initiative.

Power Man charges the Scorpion, but fails to inflict any damage. Scorpion lashes out with his tail, intent on smacking Power Man’s head from his shoulders, but Cage dodges.

Constrictor moves closer to Misty by 3″ and tries to entangle, but Misty is too quick and gets out of the way. In response, she fires at Constrictor and hits, but once again fails to do any damage.

The Henchmen move towards and fire upon Iron Fist. They manage to hit him, but he resists all damage from the shot. He moves into base contact with the henchmen group. His Foresight power nullifies any extra combat dice the henchmen would have received for outnumbering him 3 to 1. Iron Fist attacks, and in a disappointing roll only manages to net one goal. Still, that’s enough to drop one henchman.

End of Round 4

Round 5

The heroes manage to hold onto initiative 5 goals to 4.

Luke Cage decides to try to end this quickly, so he winds up and throws a haymaker right at Scorpion’s jaw. Scorpion sees it coming a mile away and Power Man whiffs badly.

Constrictor attacks Misty, entangling her in his coils. He does a net 4 goals of damage, dropping Misty to a mere 3 vitality. Misty tries to break free, but not even her bionic arm can loosen the Constrictor’s coils!

The remaining two Henchmen attack Iron Fist in hand-to-hand, with predictable results. Iron Fist easily avoids their blows and neutralizes both of them with a battery of punches and kicks!

There's a reason he's called "The Living Weapon", you know...

Finally, Scorpion attacks Power Man, but fails to do any damage.

Round 6

The heroes score initiative yet again.

Misty tries to escape the coils of the Constrictor once more, but can’t. She doesn’t have enough AP for a second try. Constrictor starts pumping electricity through his coils. Misty grits her teeth from the pain but manages to resist any damage.

Iron Fist hears his lady-love screaming in agony, and uses all his AP to rush to her aid. He gets close to Misty, but that’s all he can do this round.

Scorpion finally manages to land a blow on Power Man for a net 2 goals of damage. Luke Cage loses 2 vitality, but easily resists the knockback. Power Man throws another haymaker and misses again.

End of Round 6

Round 7

The villains manage to seize the initiative this round.

Constrictor wastes no time in finishing Misty off. His electric coils shock her for a whopping 7 goals. Misty fails to resist any damage and fails her Resolve roll. Since she only had 3 vitality left, she is KO’ed!

Iron Fist charges Constrictor. He reaches down deep…summons his chi…channeling the power of his chi into his fist…until that fist becomes…LIKE UNTO A THING OF IRON! Thus strikes the mystic warrior of K’un L’un!

Iron Fist scores 8 goals on his attack. Constrictor only manages one. After all bonuses, Iron Fist nets 6 goals, which is enough to KO Constrictor. Constrictor fails his Resolve roll and is KO’ed!

Scorpion attacks Power Man again and misses, but is smart enough to know when he’s beaten. He uses his remaining AP to leave combat and flee up the side of the building. Power Man gets a free attack on him as he breaks away, but Scorpion proves too fast and scampers 5″ up the side of the building.

In response, Power Man walks over to another lamp post and rips it out of the ground.

Round 8

Both Iron Fist and Scorpion roll 5 goals for initiative. However, since the heroes’ AP total is highest, they get initiative.

Power Man moves 3″ closer to the building and hurls the lamp post at Scorpion. He hits, scoring a net 5 goals of damage, dropping Scorpion’s vitality to 3. I decide that getting smeared by a lamp post while clinging to a building might make it difficult to keep your grip, so I have Scorpion make a Difficult (3) Agility check to keep his grip or he’ll fall right into Power Man’s lap. Scorpion gets the required 3 goals and manages to hold on.

"You haven't seen the last of me!"

Scorpion chooses to flee and fight another day. He takes to the rooftops, vowing revenge! Game over!

End of Turn 8, and End of Game!

And that’s how my first foray into SuperSystem 3 worked out. I’m excited to play more games with different heroes. Although it was solo play, this game took me less than two hours, and that’s with me looking things up every other turn. I think once I get a good handle on the rules, games like this will go fast, allowing several scenarios or campaigns to  played in one day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Modular Roads

I thought I would share my method of making modular roads for tabletop gaming. My method is not particularly inexpensive or original. But I like the end result a lot, and I think it was worth it to spend the money and time that I did.

I’m using the World Works Games Streets of Mayhem and Urban Mayhem PDF sets. These sets retail for $11.50 each, and in my opinion are well worth it. Each street tile comes in gridless, 1 inch, and 1.5 inch grids; also the streets themselves come in clean, dirty or post-apocalyptic, for use in whatever style of game you’re playing. I opted to use dirty, 1 inch gridded tiles for mine, as I plan on using these roads for both superhero and zombie gaming. Here’s a selection of what you get. There are a lot of other things included, like asphalt/concrete tiles, parking lots, railways, and even a helipad. But I just used these basic tiles to construct my roads: straight, curved, 3-way and 4-way intersections.

Printing these out is where you will spend the most money. I recommend you print them on high-quality cardstock, since anything thinner may cause the glue to lift and/or bleed through when you mount them. Cardstock and ink aren’t cheap. Expect to go through an ink cartridge or two, depending on how many tiles you print. I scaled my tiles to 6″ x 6″. so that I could fit four of them on one of my 2′ x2′ modular boards.

One of these sets uses the TerrainLinx templates and one uses the new, friendlier TerraClips sets;  two different ways of joining these tiles together. Basically, each of these tiles is designed to be printed out and individually wrapped around foam core squares, which in turn clip together through pre-cut slots and pegs. The result is some mighty impressive and strong modular terrain. But who the hell has time for that? Not me.

I got around it by mounting the tiles on matboard, the same stuff you use to mat pictures. A 32″ x 40″ sheet cost me $8 or so at Michael’s. I chose black with a black core, since that was best for the roads. With that in mind I cut the matboard lengthwise into 6″ wide sheets (more or less) like so.

Once I had my strips, I started mounting the tiles. You can fit five tiles per strip with a little left over. I decided to make the road strips varying lengths, i.e. 3, 4 or even 5 tiles. I decided to mount the elbow curves and intersections individually for maximum customizability.

The strips are a little too wide for the tiles, which is something I did on purpose. Better to get them all mounted and trim later than have the tiles too wide for the board. Trimming them down is easy once they’re in place.

For the record, I recommend using a metal ruler with a cork back, as it won’t slip when you’re making a long cut. Unfortunately, I used this carpenter’s square and it slipped, completely ruining a length of road I had just mounted. I used some foul language then, I can tell you. Also, I recommend you don’t get shitfaced on Irish whiskey while making any long cuts, as you may forget and unknowingly allow the tip of your finger to protrude just a little bit into the path of the knife. That hurts.

You guessed it. More foul language.

Speaking of the knife, you may notice the foam board cutter I bought. This baby retails for a ridiculous $17.95 at any office supply or art store.

Don’t pay that much. It’s a fucking X-Acto knife. I got mine at Job Lot for $2.99. (I live in New England. We have Ocean State Job Lot. Folks from other parts of the country should check their bargain stores like Big Lots or Dollar Tree.)

Once mounted, the matboard is heavy enough that it lays flat (mostly). I made most of these roads in the time it took to listen to Led Zeppelin’s Presence.

I found out that 6″ x 6″ tiles are perfect for 15mm gaming. Of course,  I do 28mm. So they’re a little small for my needs. The roads themselves are not too bad, as I can still fit my 28mm vehicles on them with a little room on each side. Where it becomes obvious is the parking lot. I could fit a bunch of 15mm vehicles in the spaces, but one 28mm vehicle takes up half the lot. Oh well.

Here’s an example of what a road system looks like made up of the tiles I mounted.

So there you have it, my way of making roads. Not as cheap or quick as some black felt with white lines drawn on it, but I really like the level of detail in the WWG tiles and wanted to use them.

Comments welcome.

Trying Out the Table (with Zombies)

I’m gearing up to play my first game of No More Room in Hell, by Iron Ivan Games. I figured I’d set up the table with some appropriate terrain and the majority of my zombie and survivor miniatures to see if I need more minis and/or terrain or less space. Plus, it’s just fun.

All the zombies are from Wargames Factory, with the exception of the three or four Hasslefree zombified survivors. Survivors are from various companies. I will endeavor to identify them all in the pictures below.

Here’s the table all set up. The buildings and street tiles are from World Works Games’ Streets of Mayhem sets and from Model Paper World. The MPW stuff is FREE! so that’s always nice, but the WWG stuff is awesome and more than reasonably priced.  The various vehicles were purchased at CVS in their toy aisle. They’re all made in China (surprise) and retail for about 5 bucks each, although I bought a bunch when they were on special for 2 for 1. They constantly rotate their stock so every month I usually grab one or two. Various other terrain pieces are from Armorcast (like the dumpsters), Pegasus Hobbies and JR Miniatures.

Seems like the two chainsaw chicks got the same idea…raid the gun shop! One of them Is Hasslefree’s Ashley Campbell (who is actually facing off against the zombified version of herself), the other is Reaper’s Berklee, Zombie Survivor.

These funkadelic survivors square off against a pack of zombie dogs, from Mississinewa Minatures. Clockwise from left to right, the survivors are Horace “Action” Jackson, Ebony Foxx and Sly Withers, all from Reaper. Out front is Delilah, from RAFM.

Father Thomas tries to ward off the shambling horde with his cross. Good thing Rex has his trusty sawed-off to back him up. Both minatures are from Reaper. The zombies come from Hasslefree, Wargames Factory and Mississinewa.

Hey guys…don’t look now, but…

The not-Shaun and not-Ed are both from Hasslefree: Ray and Tony, respectively. The lurking hairy zombie is from Mississinewa.

Some folks just like to stomp zombies the old-fashioned way… with their bare hands. All the Z’s are from Mississinewa. El Diablo and Butch “Killer” Davis are both from Reaper, while Tanshiro is from Hasslefree.

When do you not trust a couple of clowns in an ice-cream truck? When they’re zombies!!!

The clowns are from Mississinewa, the rest of the Z’s are Wargames Factory.

Besieged by naked (and clothed) zombies. The naked ones are from Mississinewa. The more modest Z’s are from Wargames Factory.

Another view. The Elvis clone is The Pretender, from RAFM. The fireman in his jockstrap is Mad-Dog, one of my favorite Hasslefree miniatures.

Sometimes it’s better to call in the pros. On the left is RAFM’s Gloria with Uzis, center is Hasslefree’s Harby, and on the right is Hasslefree’s Cobra.

Not all cops protect and serve. Some are zombies.

These gangers are from Bobby Jackson’s Thugz line.

After a careful look at the table, I realize I’ll probably need more zombies. Good thing I still have the 40 Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens to paint, plus a few others like Reaper’s Zombie Strippers.

A 6′ x 4′ table full of terrain looks great, but I’m left wondering where I’m going to roll my dice without sending buildings and miniatures flying all over the place. Maybe I’ll only use a 4′ x4′ surface and roll the dice on either side of the play area.

Building a Gaming Table Part 3

So real life and the holidays got in the way for a while, but the gaming table is finally finished. I had to make another trip back to Home Depot for some last minute incidentals. I can’t remember how much I spent, but let’s just say the gaming table cost me an even 400 bucks in materials and beer. A heartfelt thanks to my baby brother.

My brother did a bunch of work on the table on his own, since I wasn’t able to get to his house as often as he liked (not that he ever really needed me there) and it was taking up room in his barn. Notice I referred to his garage/workshop as a barn. That’s because my brother read the two previous blog posts and has since set me straight:

“It’s not a garage, asswipe. It’s a fucking post-and-beam barn. If it was a fucking garage it would be made out of the same shit we built your table out of, not rough-sawn lumber. And it would have been put up in a day, not two months.” That’s pretty much verbatim.

Also, my tabletop is not (emphasis on the not) MDF board. It’s something else that I forget. Of course, it looks an awful lot like MDF board to me, but my brother has loudly and repeatedly assured me it is not.

So on my brother’s birthday(of all days) he decides to load up the table into his truck and drive to my place, where we will finally set it up in a room I have set aside for gaming. Of course, it didn’t really work out that way, because I am an idiot. I didn’t measure the doorway. To put it simply, the tabletop went in fine. The frame didn’t fit.

 Of course, we tried for about 2 hours. In the cold. Still wouldn’t fit.

So since my brother insisted on making this table to his bare minimum standards, the hardware was under facing boards and wood glue. Everything had been sanded. We couldn’t just take a couple of legs off and work our way in. We had to cut the table in half. Well, he cut the table in half. I stood there in shame and tried my best not to utter a sound. 

So, after reassembly with an additional crossbrace and some bolts, here is the table. Right next to my painting area.

My brother constructed the tabletop out of a sheet of plywood cut into three panels. That way I can use it as a workbench, which I will be doing very soon as I construct some World Works Games buildings. When I want to game, the panels lift out to reveal the emphatically not-MDF board game surface beneath. Like so:

Note the shelf underneath holds some modular pinkboard. It’s supposed to be 2′ x 2′ square, but like almost everything else sold at Home Depot, the measurements are off. (“Square” is defined differently at Home Depot.) I bought six and painted one side green and one side gray, for rural and urban terrain surfaces. Once the plywood panels are off the table, the pinkboard fits right in and is held snug by the framing boards. Like this:

At least that was how it was supposed to go. Even foamboard this small warps, and each one of the tiles is warped in some way. That plus the aforementioned shitty Home Depot dimensions makes them a bit of a problem. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it can be a very uneven join. I can get around this by covering the joins with roads, or I can just do what my brother says and get one big piece of foamboard, make sure it fits the table, then make my own cuts. More work and more painting, but whatever.

My brother is insisting I re-sand the table, especially since he had to cut it again. He’s also insisting I stain it and polyurethane it. I told him I’d think about it. But I’m definitely not waiting to do any of that before I use it.

Let the games begin!

Building a Gaming Table: Part 2

So it’s taking a little longer than expected, which is primarily due to the fact that my brother still doesn’t want to build me a basic table. To give him credit, he came up with a much cooler idea than I did. So, to make a long story short, we scrapped the two shelves below the playing surface, instead opting for one. Originally, the tabletop was supposed to be a sheet of plywood covered by the sheet of MDF board. That’s no longer happening, either. Now the MDF will be below the plywood, which will be easily removable for gaming purposes, but able to be used as a workbench whenever I want simply by keeping the plywood in place. That way, my brother said, if I want to play a game ten years from now, all I have to do is remove the plywood sheets and I’m good to go.

A return trip to Home Depot was in order. I returned the two 4′ x 8 ‘sheets of sub-flooring, which were going to be the shelves, and instead bought two more 4′ x 8’ sheets of sanded plywood at my brother’s request (since he can’t stand the thought of using sub-flooring as a shelf when it will look like shit).  I bought some other stuff as well, listed below; and  of course, more beer.

My new acquisitions:

(2) 4 x 8 sanded BC pine plywood sheet: $71.54

(4) 1″ x 6″ x 144″ premium pine boards: $54.68

(2) 2″ x 4″ x 96″ pine studs: $5.44

(1) bottle of Tite-Bond wood glue: $5.47

More beer: $30.11

Subtotal with Tax: $175.81

Credit for returned sub-flooring: -$42.44

Total new charges: $133.37

Add that to my previous total, and I’m into this thing for $337.91 already. Way more than I wanted to spend, but remember that $58.05 of that is just beer (and that number is certain to go higher).

We got the framework for the top of the table together last time. We added a couple of cross-braces to support the tabletop, and got to work cutting the MDF board to fit the dimensions of the tabletop. For the record, MDF board likes to be cut upside-down, otherwise a circular saw will tear the shit out of your playing surface. We tested it first to be sure. A generous application of wood glue and the judicious use of a finishing nail gun, and the MDF was attached to the framework. We clamped it and let it sit overnight.

I went home, and over the next two days my brother managed not only to run his normal landscaping business and single-handedly build his staircase to the top floor of his barn, but he also put together the frame work for the table legs. I arrived last night with more beer (+$9.29) to find this:

We cut the shelf, now made from plywood, and fitted it to the frame with glue and finishing nails. Then he screwed the tabletop to the frame with an impact driver (so we can remove it later if we need to), which, as you can see, is now recessed MDF. The recess is 1 1/8″, so the 1″ modular pinkboard I will use as a play surface will fit nicely and won’t slide around too much. Plus, the remaining 1/8″ recess should be negligible and won’t piss me off when I’m pushing lead around.

Despite my repeated requests, my brother finds it completely unacceptable that this table looks like what it is: a workbench. So he insists we face the studs with flat boards to cover the framework because that way  “it’s better than staring at fucking studs all day long.” We tipped it on its side and did the framing on the front and side legs of one side. And that’s where we left it.

I’m supposed to go back Sunday to finish the rest, which will include framing the sides and the shelf and finishing the top. My brother has already told me we will be taking another trip to Home Depot first, where I’ll get to return another sheet of plywood and buy some more framing materials. He’s not going to let me take it out of his workshop without staining and polyurethaning it, too, so I guess I’ll be buying that stuff as well.

And of course, I’ll be buying more beer.