I attended Cold Wars up in Pennsylvania this weekend. I came in 2nd place in painting behind Steve's extra cool Australian desert rat force. Kudos to Steve for setting the bar higher. I decided to put a display board together the day before I had to drive up to Pennsylvania. Our gaming group's Tobruk table has been under design for a while, so I thought it would be a good time to test out some of the techniques. I am really happy with how this came out. It was my first time attempting water, so it was a big leap.
Stuff that worked:
- Magic merlin as a sealant all over the board
- small slate, large slate, and sand along the sides of the road
- first pour of the water effects.
- Tallarn desert paint with Secret Weapon Burning sands weathering powder.
Stuff that failed:
- foam at the waters edge (Vallejo Foam, you are out!)
So what about Cold Wars? It was eye opening. It was great. It was full of snow. Hopefully Dave Taylor will post some photos on his blog so everyone can see some of the inspiring tables. Some of the game masters have spent years putting their tables and scenarios together, and it shows. Game Mastered events are just better. The Bolt Action tournament had lovely asymmetrical terrain, but suffered from 40k-styled uber-lists, and weird scenarios.
Gorgeous display board, man. How did you do the ripples in the water?
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the 'Ark of the Covenant', carried by two soldiers, that someone made for Bolt Action? Looks like it would go well with your truck. :-)
Looking good John...I can't believe you did the board right before hand....!
ReplyDeleteMy only suggestion would be to pile up some more sand around the edges of the buildings to cover up any gaps showing where they intersect the main board. (for the future)
I have a plan for that Greg. I plan to have grass and broken pottery around the building areas. This was fast and furious, so a lot of measuring went sideways.
DeleteI figured as much! I still can't believe you made the board that quickly...I'm months a head of nova and already trying to lay out a board for my walkers for narrative!
DeleteAnd here you thought bribing the painting judges wouldn't pan out for me...
ReplyDeleteThe fact of the matter is that your tanks were better painted, but mine had kangaroos. People love kangaroos.
I echo your comments on Cold Wars. I loved the narrative scenario-based games that I got to play. Excellent game masters and excellent tacticians.
The Bolt Action tournament was an excellent event, run by excellent guys, with excellent participants, and I hated nearly every minute of it. Especially when I was winning. Tournament style gaming is not for me; it brings out the worst in non-tactical gamesmanship, in which I freely participated in order to win. It felt sooo wrong to win a game by exploiting game mechanics over real tactics.
I was really hoping there would be a way for me to enjoy tournaments. The guys were great, and I think we might be able to convince them to try some narrative games. I suspect the mega-table paired with reasonable forces, and two GMS will make for a game worth driving to.
Delete