Prepping For Trumpeter Salute Convention for April '14

[carlos13th]

Makes sense to do that. Thanks for the insight into your sculpting process.

[Sturmpioneer]

Been a very slow week painting wise but I do have some test terrain pieces to show.  These were done to see if the dimensions were about right and if the colour schemes were working.  Both Robert (terrain builder) and I hashed about the various features wanted and doublechecked our ideas of the layout.  We decided we're on the right track so its full steam ahead now.  Three weeks to go!

[Sturmpioneer]

Again another late entry!  Took a week off for family time then got ill!    Have one week till the con where I will put on four games!  What was I thinking!  Anyways, did get better this week and slapped on more paint onto Hidetora's forces.  Took some pics though they will need some touch-ups and washes to really complete them.  Need some dry weather to do gloss and matt spraying to seal them up.  Tomorrow, off to the terrain builder's home to assist in the table and terrain pieces.  Will take some pics.  He's promised to put together a "how-to" once this week is over.  My "token/game pieces" man has wrapped up his end though I don't have any pics of them yet!  Are you reading this Mr. T!   Well that's enough babbling, here's the most current WIP of the samurai defending the third castle.

[Sturmpioneer]

Have returned from the terrain master.  I helped apply wash and some drybrushing and basing the two 2x4 boards.  I didn't have a chance to see all the pieces he is working on such as the gate and some corner pieces but its all coming together.  So without further ado the latest terrain WIP (all figs belong to Robert the Terrain Master):

[Mr. Peabody]

My "token/game pieces" man has wrapped up his end though I don't have any pics of them yet!  Are you reading this Mr. T!  

Indeed I am Mr. Kingsford, indeed I am. 

This has been a fun challenge; Ronin presents some very interesting mechanics and has potential to allow for plenty of detail. But this is a convention game intended to offer only a choice selection of features from the the full game.

So the plan has been to provide only the information that players will need and to keep that as concise as possible. Hopefully everyone will be able to concentrate on the action while looking for the details they need on their troop roster or their copy of the modified quick reference sheet.

Here is what I came up with... Click on the links to see the .pdf's.

Lord Hidetora's roster
Taro & Jiro's rosters
Each Buntai is presented to make identifying the miniatures easier and with the modifiers for weapons and armour already calculated. This allows the inexperienced player more time to focus on the Combat Pool dynamics that are such a big part of Ronin...

QRS front and QRS back
The QRS is stripped down to only what is needed to play this 'Ran' scenario.

Morale Tracker
Token Fronts and Backs
With multiple players at the table we found we needed a 'Combat Completed' (white fan) marker to prevent returning to, and re-fighting combats. Swirly for stun and skull for dead. One and two swords for light and grievous wounds.
The tokens are cut out with a 19mm punch, then stuck onto pennies.
I would like to see the Morale Track get some use, but with three strong Buntai on the table, I have yet to see any group suffer a serious morale set-back. But there is always a first time, and that's usually during the big convention game. Be prepared.

Layouts were done with Inkscape, a free (and fun!) scalable vector graphics utility.

[Sturmpioneer]

Terrain was delivered to the house and I've been having to blacken all the edges.  Tomorrow morning I'll be drybrushing grey onto the boards.  Also quickly painted up a secret objective.  I'll try and take some photos tomorrow morning.

The figs are all done.  I had to get airbrushed with matt medium last weekend.  Usually I use Testors Dullcote from a can but it was too wet outside and I was worried about the misting effect happening.

Tokens are to be delivered at the gaming venue tomorrow night.

I'm hopeful this will all look good at the big reveal. 

[Mr. Peabody]

Stoked for the big weekend Sturm.  Looking forward to connecting with local LAF members at the show!

[Sturmpioneer]

Okay now, I have returned from 3 days of hosting participation games of Ronin using the figures from my own range of Kingsford Miniatures.  16 hours of hosting with 12 different participants.  I think it was a success as everybody seemed to enjoy the game and scenario.  I took a few photos over the weekend with different devices and in different lighting conditions and no tripod.  Some of the photos are fairly dire but I'm including as I think they show something of interest.  If I get photos from some participants I'll include them.

In no particular order:

[Mr. Peabody]

Sturm, you delivered game after game, all weekend long. You were the role model for super efficient game hosting and cheerful banter.

Congratulations on all the positive feed-back and encouragement mate, you deserve it.

[gary42]

That game looked awesome and as I was able to do a pretty salute play test can concur that it was really fun!  I was sad that I wasn't able to get a Salute game in.  How is it that three days can go so fast?!

People spoke very highly of it.  All your hard work paid off!  Congrats on your win!

[Arteis]

Looks like an excellent layout, that would've been terrific to see in real life.

I like the way you captured the bleak and barren look from the movie, rather than going for the common stereotypical cherry-blossom and willow look that most of us samurai gamers seem to do.

 

[northtroll]

Simply Stunning work! Will you be bringing this to Enfilade?

[Sturmpioneer]

I thought Enfilade fills up very quickly so I hadn't bothered trying to register. Do you think there may spots available?

[carlos13th]

Looks fantastic. Sounds like people had a lot of fun.

[Mr. Peabody]

Sturm's table was constantly full and people remained involved throughout... In fact, in each session, the game pretty much ran itself after turn two or three. Always a good sign.

I like the way you captured the bleak and barren look from the movie, rather than going for the common stereotypical cherry-blossom and willow look that most of us samurai gamers seem to do.

Arteis, the photos just don't do the table justice. Sturm had been concerned about the 'bleak look', but in the end the whole ensemble was a thing of beauty and it portrayed the film very well indeed.