Men of Iron

Several years ago over on Consimworld I ran a game of Men of Iron by Richard Berg where I was posting each turn using VASSAL.  I never finished the game at the time and have decided to go back and complete the play by play.  I will be posting all of the old turns over the next couple of weeks until I am fully caught up and then will finish up the game!

For those of you who do not know, Men of Iron is a board game that focuses on medieval infantry battles in the early 14th century  The scenario that I was playing was the Battle of Poitiers which took place in France, September 19th 1356 during the Hundred Years' War.  The English had been looting their way across the French countryside when the French army lead by Jean II caught up to them at the small town of Poitiers. History shows the English lead by Edward the Black Prince with a force of around 6,000 men besting the French army which was over 11,000 strong.  Will my game conform to history or will a new history be written?  

Follow along to find out!

Pathfinder stuff on eBay

You want me!

Hey folks,

I just posted a bunch of Pathfinder gear over on eBay, see is here: Linky.

The lot includes the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Game Master Guide, Bestiary's 1,2 & 3, Land of the Linnorm Kings, Dwarves of Golarian and the Adventurer's Armory.  All of the books are in like new condition, there are no bumps, dings or writing in them with the exception of the Core Rulebook which has a small chunk missing in the upper left corner of the cover (see the pic above).  All the books have been kept in a smoke free home.  Brand new (which is how it looks) this gear would go for over $300, bidding starts at $150 with a buy now option at $215.00.

This is a great way to get into Pathfinder, it has everything you need and would provide many hours of adventures!  I purchased all of these books over the course of a few years but have never played them, I read them then they went straight up on my shelf. With my time more limited these day I will never get around to playing them, especially with all my RPG time going to DCCRPG and other retro games.  I hope these books find a good home and give someone many hours of pleasure!

Miniatures, miniatures, miniatures.....

My minis don't look this nice...

In the last six months or so I have taken up interest in miniature gaming.  I have not played many of these types games over the years with Rogue Trader being the exception (but even then I did not have enough money to collect and paint more than a handful of minis).  I have been scouring the internets for fun fast games that are in conflicts or time periods that I am interested in.  All of these games require small amounts of miniatures, I am not interested in games that need hundreds of minis to play. If anyone else has suggestions for fun, low count miniature games, please post in the comments section below!

Dux Bellorum: Arthurian Wargaming Rules AD 367 - 793, published by Osprey Wargames.  I'm sure many of my viewers are familiar with Osprey Publishing and their great many books on all kinds of historical conflicts and the troops and equipment that were involved in them.  Dux Bellorum is a quick, skirmish game that has a relatively low miniature count.  The basing rules are flexible and can be scaled up or down depending on what size miniatures you plan to use.  Each army consists of roughly ten units and each unit represents around fifty men.  Command and control is handled by Leadership Points you can allocate each turn and the rules seem sleek and polished.  There has been some complaint with how skirmishers are handled but I have not had a chance to play and encounter these complaints. I own no dark age miniatures as of yet as I am currently focused on another game listed below.

All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out by Two Hour Wargames. This is the latest version of their popular zombie miniature game.  The reason I became interested in this game is due to its robust campaign system AND its a game about ZOMBIES for pete's sake!  This game is a little more complex than the other games on this list and the manual is very utilitarian, no pictures other than the cover and it is a comb bound book.  The campaign systems looks awesome and has your ongoing characters worried about resources such as food, fuel, medical supplies and luxury items.  Not only do you have to worry about zombies but also other groups of survivors, called PEF's (possible enemy forces). The idea of creating a character and then trying to survive the zombie apocalypse was too irresistible to pass up.  I have no miniatures for this game yet but I have 60 of them on the way thanks to a recently completed Indiegogo campaign.  I can't wait to get started painting my undead horde!

Force on Force: Modern Wargaming Rules, also published in hardcover by Osprey Wargaming.  This game has me very excited, its a small unit skirmish ruleset for modern warfare.  The focus of this game is on irregular warfare, usually U.S. and allies versus guerilla style fighters, e.g. the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Viet Cong, etc.  There is a whole line of miniatures by Elhiem that support this game and a series of scenario books that focus on different conflicts like the battle of Fallujah, Afghanistan, Iraq War, African Bush Wars and Somalia to name a few.  The rules seem fast and simple and are not bogged down with the exact placement of where each individual miniature is placed, a squad is the unit of measurement, so if most of the unit is under cover then they are all considered under cover.  There is a nice interrupt mechanic that allows static units to shoot at moving units, it all seems pretty slick.  I also picked up the Enduring Freedom: Afghanistan 2001-2010 scenario book.  This is not a points driven game, you do not purchase your side and then battle it out, each game is based on real world encounters or generic mission profiles.  I am really looking forward to giving this a try.  Once again, I have no miniature for this game yet and I am currently painting minis for the game listed below.  You can see the wonderful Elhiem Miniatures here: http://www.elhiemfigures.com/

Habet, Hoc Habet! Rules for Gladiator Combat by Flagship Games.  This is the game I am currently most involved in.  I have around twenty five gladiator miniatures that I am painting and will be building a small arena soon after.  I picked this up after reading numerous reviews of all of the gladiator games out there (and there are a lot of them).  It was well reviewed and includes rules for horses, chariots, beasts and ongoing campaigns.  After watching the Spartacus series on Starz I was all amped up for some sword and sandal action!  Initiative each round is determined by a deck of playing cards, each gladiator has a certain amount of actions depending on their experience level. My only worry is that this game will end up being very static, gladiators run at each other then stop and swing until they are dead.  I need to read through the rules again to figure out what combat actions are available.  This is a common complaint I have heard of many of the available gladiator games out there but not one I have specifically heard in relation to Habet, Hoc Habet!  Has anyone out there played this game, any feedback on it?  I'll be posting some pictures in the next few weeks of my sad looking paint jobs on my Crusader Miniature gladiators so you all can get a good laugh.

Against the Slave Lords - A Review

I received the second AD&D adventure compilation in the mail this last week and am once again very pleased with my purchase!  For those of you who do not know, Wizards of the Coast is in the process of releasing all kinds of old D&D products, core and adventure books from multiple editions.  Its nice to be able to pick up in print a nice shiney new version of the old adventures that I either lost or never purchased. Against the Slave Lords is the newest adventure compilation, it contains previously published adventures A1-A4 as well as a brand spanking new introduction adventure A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry.

This offering is very similar to the last adventure book, Dungeons of Dread.  It is a hardcover book with a very nice cover that features some slight embossing.  There are 162 pages of adventure and maps printed on a nice glossy paper and at the end of the book are twelve pages of black and white fan art.  Its a great looking book that does not suffer from the poor image quality of the first release.  My biggest gripe with both books is that there is no separate map booklet, all of the maps are printed at the end of each adventure, so you will need to make copies or you will find yourself flipping back a forth a lot.  I have heard that Wizards of the Coast will be releasing .pdf's of all of the maps but I was unable to find them.  Maybe my internet-fu is not as good as I believed (or maybe they are lazy and have not released them yet).  If anyone locates them please link them in the comments!

The adventures included are as follows: A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry, A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade, A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords and A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.  There are introductions to each by Skip Williams, David "Zeb" Cook, Harold Johnson, Allen Hammock and Lawrence Schick.  The art is fantastic throughout with nice crisp reproductions, though I found the new art in A0 to be mediocre and not as "old school" as the rest of the book.

The Slave Lord series is consistently rated as one of the great AD&D adventures of all time.  This is a great new package with a brand new introductory adventure and it is not one that should be missed.  Buy this book if you do not already own this series, it is Drunk Umber Hulk approved!

Call of Cthulhu 7th edition Kickstarter! All hail Yog-Sothoth!!

I'm not sure how I missed this but one of my favorite games of all time, Call of Cthulhu is up on kickstarter with a brand new edition and they are knocking it out of the park with pledges.  To date they have raised $250,000 with an original goal of $40,000.  At the $70 pledge level you get softcovers of both the new 7th edition core book as well as the investigators guide.  There are a ton of stretch goals, its worth a look if you have any interest in CoC.

Linky here: CoC 7th Edition

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the differences between 6th edition and this new version.  I need to stay away from Kickstarter, its killing my wallet!

12,000 Hits!

The Drunk Umber Hulk hit 12,000 hits today, thanks to all of you out there that have been tuning in.  I've really enjoyed running this blog,  I hope you all are enjoying reading my little section of the interwebs!  This is for you:

Entertainment Roundup

My wife and I went and saw the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, last weekend and both really enjoyed it.  J.J. Abrams is doing a great job with the reboot, it still feels like Star Trek but has a breath of fresh air blown into the series.  I am looking forward to the next movie!

The new Hobbit trailer dropped today and it looks awesome!  Wood elves, Dwarves in barrels, Lake Town and finally a glimpse of Smaug.  Check it out here:  

It was brought to my attention that there are new Mad Max movies in production, I had no idea!  They are called Mad Max: Fury Road and Mad Max: Furiosa.  Both star Tom Hardy as the main character Max and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa.  I am really excited for these, no trailer as of yet but apparently filming is completed with the exception of some pickups.  The first is slated to be released in 2013 around Christmas.  I think Tom Hardy is a good choice for Max, he has the tough guy look but hes not over the top.  Mel Gibson is apparently making an appearance as "The Drifter" and the original director of the first three movies, George Miller is back in charge for the next two.  That gives me some hope that they may turn out well!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Tom Hardy

And last but not least here is the Old Spock vs New Spock Audi commercial.  Leonard Nimoy cussing and singing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.  Funny stuff, enjoy!