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Author Topic: The Grumpy Gnome‘s Fantasy Projects Blog (latest update on page 61)  (Read 102802 times)

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
I will imagine the joke was funny and laugh.

In hindsight I should have used more flock and less static grass on my bases but I won a lot more cheap static grass in auctions than flock.... that influenced me greatly. There many types of small lots of static grass and a little flock mixed into my generic basing grass mix. I have since won more flock but have been using that mostly for moss.

I also like flock for tree leaves but my wife is not entirely convinced.
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Continuing my research on old SBG materials I have come across a couple of interesting ideas that I am curious to hear everyone’s opinions on since they were probably discussed in the past.

1) #44 of the DeAgostini Battle Games in Middle Earth magazines, page 4, talks of Grand strategy and strategy points. This seems an interesting idea but underdeveloped with only 3 options per side. Was this ever expanded anywhere? What do you think of the idea?

Basically you get one strategy point per hero. You spend those points to buy Grand strategies which cost between 1 to 3 points and are exclusive to good or evil.

2) Random weather and time of day as per #65 DeAgostini, page 2.

The next couple were from a GBHL podcast 3 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeeXZq6XgCg

3) woodland creature gives +1 defense when model is in woodland

4) add the model’s fight value to the D6 of the duel roll

5) suggested in the comments, allow horns (and drums) to be picked up from fallen models like banners

What do you think of these?

Adding fight value sounds very interesting to tip the balance towards heroes and elites but may be game breaking. Thoughts?

PS... some of my recent scatter in my Smurf cart. Not gluing it in means the material can be changed between, or even during, games.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2020, 12:59:43 PM by Rick W. »

Offline mirjeki

  • Bookworm
  • Posts: 98
I like the idea of random weather. Would it be used to affect things such as archery and perhaps skirmisher deployment? Thick fog could mean that after deployment you roll a scatter die and a D6 because they might have gotten their position wrong or something.

Any interaction between models and the environment is a bonus to narrative wargaming in my opinion, so fallen instruments and banners are perfect for adding a little bit of story-telling to a battle. Of course that means you'll have to make little fallen instruments and fallen banners terrain markers to show where they've fallen; the projects never end!

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
“Of course that means you'll have to make little fallen instruments and fallen banners terrain markers to show where they've fallen; the projects never end!”

Of course! I had not thought of that... but yeah, you are right, that makes sense.

On the others,

1) There are more Grand strategy options, this time faction specific, in issue #87... not bad as a start but many more would need to be devised otherwise they run the risk of being used routinely and therefore become boringly anticipated.

4) This suggestion becomes problematic for Fight values over 6. However, I do still like the concept of introducing more gradual fighting skill advantage rather than simply better or worse. A F6 hero fights no differently against a F4 opponent than a F2 opponent.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Despite the current troubled times causing us to have trouble concentrating on painting, me and my wife got a few things finished.

Some ruffians, some villagers, a well and more.

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2020/03/30/you-you-ruffian/

The Mantic Elf has been an attempted Black Numenorean conversion. The well is by my wife.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2020, 12:33:14 PM by Rick W. »

Offline Swordisdrawn

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Mad Scientist
  • *
  • Posts: 732
  • '
    • Sword is Drawn
'The night is gone and the sword is drawn and the scabbard thrown away!'

Instagram Swordisdrawn264

Offline Treebeard

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 732
  • Lazy French Painter
    • Painting Log
Marvelous work here. A collection to be proud of

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Thanks for the kind words. I am pleased with the progress I have made, particularly with eyes but I am still in envy of so many gifted artists on here. My camera work still disappoints, the minis look much better in person to me. Now I know close up photos expose small errors that are normally overlooked but the subtle color change and glossiness in the photos does not reflect how they look in person.


Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
I came across an intriguing house rule for Battle Companies that is a bit crunchy but helps balance the experience system. Can you see any drawbacks other than the extra math work?


Credit to Simmushkan on Reddit
........................

We’ve only played a few factions (Haradrim, Rohan, Dwarves, Hobbits) and we house-ruled new xp because the Dwarves vs Hobbits meant that the dwarves leveled up way more quickly as it’s a per wound basis for xp.

As a result we grant xp = model cost when you kill something. You need 5x your model cost to “level up”. So instead of a flat 5 kills an 8 point warrior will need 8x5 = 40xp to level up.

It takes a tiny bit more record keeping (but we already used a spreadsheet so it’s not that bad) and seems much fairer so far.

So, for example, an 8 point dwarf only gets 4xp for killing a 4 point hobbit.
This tends to speed up the advancement of low point per model armies and slows the advancement of high point per model armies, which seems good to us.
Note that we do just play for fun not in competitions or anything though.

I should add that you divide the xp by the number of wounds. E.g. if you wound a model worth 60 points that has three wounds you get 20xp per wound.

Oh and the end of game when you get an xp point for playing the mission, your guys just get xp equal to their points cost. E.g, an 8 point warrior gets 8xp. This way, because they need 5x their points cost in xp to level up they still do so in 5 games like in the normal rules.

I forgot to mention how fun it is in the game when a super hero guy gets very little benefit from killing little Hobbits etc it encourages heroes to clash with heroes.
Also it makes for awesome moments when a lowly warrior does get a wound on an expensive hero, sometimes earning a promotion from that one wound! Good stories =)

No xp for wounding horses. The cost of the horse (and any other equipment) is already part of the points value of the hero or warrior, so if they start the mission mounted, whatever points value they were worth at the beginning of the mission is what is up for grabs.

And yes, when you win a scenario, any time the book says “gain 1 xp” you just get as much xp as you’re worth.

Eg. A hero worth 70 points gets 70xp for playing and 70xp for winning. They need 70x5=350xp to level up, so they are 140/350 = 2/5 of the way there. In the old system they’d have 2xp and need 5xp so also 2/5 of the

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Finally managed to finish a few pieces after a clear coat matt spray problem. Thanks to Wyrmalla for a great deal on some excellent minis only needing minor tweaking for our game.

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2020/04/09/testing-my-patience/

Can anyone recommend a good looking, affordable (er... cheap) proxy for a Cave Drake?

Offline CookAndrewB

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1734
    • 3d designs can be found at Thingiverse
Looking good, Grumpy! Love the pack-dogs (and the dog packs, I suppose).

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Thanks mate! It has been a bit frustrating getting things finished as I have been getting distracted by so much... including building more ruffians today out of bits from the bits box. I keep telling myself to finish things before starting something new but I just do not seem capable of being self disciplined.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Finished a few more pieces... some Orcs and rats. The Orcs are standard LOTR Mordor Orcs but I did some customizing to give them some more individual personality.

Advice, suggestions and feedback very welcome!

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2020/04/15/rats-and-orcs/

No one has any suggestions for a good looking but inexpensive Cave Drake?

Offline Hobgoblin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4911
    • Hobgoblinry
The orcs and rats look good!

For the cave drake, why not go with a Reaper Bones shadow dragon and leave off/detach the wings? The slots are easily filled, and it only costs about a tenner over here. And because it's that classic "quadruped with wings" dragon type rather than the more plausible wyvern/GoT dragon, it'll look fine without wings. It's a good size too:


Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Ah! That one looks good. My wife and I backed Bones 5, in part for a good dragon for later in the campaign but I wanted something more immediately available for the Drake. One thing putting me off Reaper Bones Dragons right now was the different sizes of all the various dragons. You say that one is big enough to swallow a character whole?

Looking at my latest Orcs I think I need to go back and redo the eyes as well as change those swords for something with curved blades....

 

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