Thursday, November 27, 2014

28mm Gladiators for 'Spartacus' and 'Jugula'


As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our gaming group quite enjoys playing a wide variety of board games. In fact several of us cut our teeth playing Avalon Hill and SPI war games and so it seems we are 'hard-coded' to love anything with a hex map and having a point decimal rules organization. (I still get a nervous tick whenever I hear 'Advanced Squad Leader' mentioned - a title that is notorious for being more of a lifestyle choice than a game.) A recent favourite is Gale Force Nine's 'Spartacus'. For us, any game with a byline that promises a fun-filled evening of 'blood and treachery' gets our vote!


'Spartacus' has each player (up to six) taking the role of a Dominus, controlling a powerful Roman household with its attendant school (ludus) of gladiators. Each game turn is composed of running nasty schemes, buying slaves, gladiators, equipment and then bidding to see who will host the games for that turn. To win the game a player needs to amass 12 points of influence (which can be damnably tricky with everyone doing their best to cut each others' throats!). The rule mechanics for the gladiatorial combat is quite elegant, fast and suitably bloody, with all the players being able to bid on wins, wounds, and decapitations (yikes!). We've always had a rip-roaring time as the game allows you to be as creative as you like in formulating your deals and crafting wonderfully treacherous backstabbing gambits. Great fun and highly recommended.


As you can see from the pic above the board for the arena is hex-based (swoon) and the game even comes with some basic soft plastic gladiators. They're not bad, but, being the dork that I am, I immediately wanted to replace them with my own painted miniatures. 

I had picked up some 28mm gladiators from Brigade Games a few months ago and I found that, once based, they fit perfectly within the hexes of the game board. You may have noticed that one of the bases is round while the others are square - this is because these figures will also be used for 'Jugula', which differentiates between 'heavy'  (square-based guys) and 'light' (round) class gladiators.

A light 'Thraex'
A 'Secutor'
To follow in the spirit of the game board, I indulged in painting the bases with gratuitous blood trails and ghastly spatters of viscera (love that word, viscera, it sounds just as it describes). 

A 'Murmillo'
A 'Hoplomachus'
A 'Provocator'
I have another batch of these to do, mostly lighter class fellas,  but I'm going to hold off on painting them until the Painting Challenge starts. Every point counts now...

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Paint Duels and Side Challenges!



Visit the Painting Challenge blog to witness the first gauntlets thrown for painting duels and side challenges. This year's event is setting up to be a pell-mell, paint-spattered melee into March! 

Ladies, Gentlemen... Select your brushes and take your positions...


Friday, November 21, 2014

The Fifth Painting Challenge Prize Sponsors


Please check out the Painting Challenge page for details of this year's prize sponsors. In brief, I wish to thank:


Barrage Miniatures





Deep-Cut Studios




Diplomatist Books




Fife & Drum / Minden Miniatures




J&M Miniatures



Murawski Miniatures




Orinoco Miniatures



SG2 Creations




Westfalia Miniatures





Again, thank you to all our prize sponsors for their very generous support of the Painting Challenge.


Next Up: Paint Duels and Side Challenges!

Monday, November 17, 2014

'Unity Through Paint' - The Roster for the Fifth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge



We have our team! Below you will find the roster of participants for the Fifth Annual Painting Challenge. This year we have 72 hobbyists rolling out, up by almost a dozen from last year - the more the merrier, wot! 

We have folks from 12 years of age to, well, let's say not 12 years of age (;OP) and coming from 14 nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, United States, and the UK. Looking at this I think this year's Challenge's motto of 'Unity through Paint' may not be too far off the mark.

Note: To all the participants, please review the roster to make sure that you're there and that your points target and the link to your blog (if you have one) are correct.

I also want to take this opportunity to announce that there will be a few changes to how the Challenge will be accessed and administered for this edition. 


1)  I have created an exclusive Painting Challenge blog for the event. So when the event kicks off on December 5th it is there where you'll be wanting to go. The address of the Painting Challenge blog is:



In addition, you can find a button to it ('The Painting Challenge') at the top of this blog.



Why do this? Well, I believe the Challenge has now grown large enough to warrant its own web presence and I think it's time to keep it distinct from my own personal blog. Over the next few months I will be structuring the new Challenge blog to contain all of the content from the previous four events so it's self-contained and can project a sense of its own history.

Also, a dedicated blog allows me to be able to assign the participants of the Challenge as author/contributors. This is quite significant as it will give the participants more flexibility and control on how their submissions are handled while also alleviating a portion of the workload from me. (Don't worry, I will still act as editor and will post entires for those who either cannot, or do not, wish to mess with posting their own entries.)

2) In order for me to better keep on top of the entries I am assigning each participant a day of the week in which his or her work will be posted to the Challenge blog. This, in turn, helps me spread out the work over the week and gives me Sunday's off to work on my own stuff and manage the Fortnight Theme Rounds.

Nonetheless, during the first and final weeks of the Challenge the assigned days will be ignored, allowing people to send in their entries as they wish, maintaining the Challenge's signature pell-mell start and mad race to the finish.

I hope this all makes sense. I'll be sending out an email in a week or so to all the participants to go over the finer mechanics of the Challenge. 

Up Next: Our Prize Sponsors!


The Fifth Annual Painting Challenge Roster

Challenger
Post Day
Initial Points Target
Blog
1.               
AaronH
Monday
650
2.               
AdamC
Monday
1000
3.               
AlanD
Monday
1500
4.               
AnneO’L
Monday
500
5.               
BenG
Monday
400
6.               
BrendonW
Monday
1000
7.               
BrianB
Monday
500
8.               
BurkhardS
Monday
1000
9.               
ByronM
Monday
1000
10.            
ChristopherS
Monday
500
11.            
ClintB
Monday
1250
12.            
DaveD
Monday
2250
13.            
DavidB
Tuesday
750
-
14.            
DavidL
Tuesday
750
15.            
EdwinK
Tuesday
1000
16.            
Evan&GrantH
Tuesday
200
-
17.            
FranL
Tuesday
600
18.            
GillesW
Tuesday
1000
19.            
GregB
Tuesday
300
20.            
IanW
Tuesday
1000
21.            
IannickM
Tuesday
600
22.            
JaccoK
Tuesday
500
-
23.            
JamesR
Tuesday
750
24.            
JamieM
Wednesday
500
25.            
JeremyM
Wednesday
300
-
26.            
JohnM
Wednesday
1000
27.            
JuanM
Wednesday
500
28.            
Kawe
Wednesday
200
29.            
KevinH
Wednesday
300
30.            
KevinS
Wednesday
?
31.            
MarkE
Wednesday
500
32.            
MarkG
Wednesday
750
33.            
MartinC
Wednesday
1000
-
34.            
MartinN
Wednesday
400
35.            
MarkE
Wednesday
500
36.            
MarkO
Thursday
1000
37.            
MichaelA
Thursday
1000
38.            
MichaelF
Thursday
501
39.            
MichaelP
Thursday
500
40.            
MilesR
Thursday
2000
41.            
Millsy
Thursday
2000
42.            
PaulS
Thursday
500
43.            
PeterB
Thursday
1000
44.            
PeterD
Thursday
1000
45.            
PeterT
Thursday
500
46.            
PhilH
Thursday
500
47.            
RayR
Thursday
300
48.            
RichardC
Friday
500
-
49.            
RichardM
Friday
700
50.            
RobH
Friday
200
51.            
RobP
Friday
500
-
52.            
RossM
Friday
500
53.            
RoyW
Friday
750
54.            
SamuliS
Friday
1000
55.            
Sander
Friday
500
56.            
SeanS
Friday
1000
57.            
SebG
Friday
200
58.            
ScottB
Friday
600
59.            
ScottS
Friday
1000
60.            
SidneyR
Friday
750
61.            
SimonM
Saturday
500
62.            
StacyS
Saturday
300
-
63.            
SteH
Saturday
750
64.            
StefanK
Saturday
750
65.            
StefanoS
Saturday
300
-
66.            
SteveM
Saturday
800
-
67.            
SylvainR
Saturday
300
-
68.            
TamsinP
Saturday
1500
69.            
TeemuL
Saturday
500
70.            
TobiP
Saturday
500
71.            
VincentC
Saturday
500
72.            
…and Curt

750