Pass in Review: Wizkid Pre-Painted Products

(Image:  Medieval Farmer Set by Wizkids)

There’s plenty of internet memes about gamers relishing the opportunity to catch up on painting projects while under COVID-19 “Stay-At-Home” orders.

Sounds great—until you actually get sick.

Two Saturdays ago I woke up to get ready for my night shift—and felt terrible.  I called my boss and told him I was sick.  Within two days, three coworkers, my boss, and a coworker’s spouse all fell ill.  I encountered one of my coworkers at the emergency room parking lot as we waited to get evaluated.

“Fortunately” it was “just” the flu and not COVID-19, but everyone was quarantined for several days before being allowed to come back to work.

During my illness I had no motivation to do anything.  Even reading exacerbated my nausea.  So I wasn’t up to doing any photo shoots of my Warhammer 40,000 collection, concocting webcomics, or even writing a simple blogpost.

One of the few activities I could do was some online “shopping therapy.”

Two items I ordered were the Medieval Homestead and the Medieval Farmer Set, via The Miniature Market, for about $35.99 each.

Both products are part of Wizkids plastic 4D Terrain line. 

What I like most about these products is they’re already painted.  Or as I like to say:  I love miniature items I don’t have to cut, paste or paint.

The items have a “toy-ish” look, especially the domestic animals.  However, unlike kid’s toys, the quality is good and scale is appropriate for skirmish or role playing games (RPGs), especially since the none of the items represent any of the combat figures or central characters.

(Image:  Medieval Homestead by Wizkids)

I’m happy with my purchase and look forward to adding more Wizkids’ 4D Terrain to my collection, which will probably be this...

...the Jungle Shrine Set.  These items seem appropriate for any setting:  Heroic fantasy, pulp, and even science fiction.

It’s not like we haven’t seen such a match-up before...

(Image from Star Trek, the Original Series, episode The Apple)

Zulu Games at Enfilade 2016

While I posted about our Enfilade Convention's Silver Anniversary Ceremony four months ago, it's been over two years since I made a gaming video.

So last week I decided to get back on track and start sifting through the 1,100+ photos I took during the convention and start composing some themed videos.

I thought it be appropriate to start off with a shout-out to one gamemaster (GM) who hosted a Zulu War or Boxer Rebellion game during every period.

I don't know how Bill does it every year.  I ran three games back-to-back a few years ago and I was mentally exhausted.

Gamemastering at Enfilade 2012

(Image:  Yours Truly, standing, looking scholarly at my first game at Enfilade 2012)

Well, I managed to survive my Enfilade Gamemastering Triathalon.  As I mentioned in my Product Review post (17 May), this was my first time at running games at a convention.  I've been GMing for close friends since I was a teen, but have never done this with total strangers.

Everyone liked the games I ran, which were Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC), Cold War Commander (CWC) and Future War Commander (FWC). 

In my first game, BKC pictured above, there were 3 players who were familiar with the game.  I was greatful for this, since they helped me get with understanding the rules.  However, as the game progressed, this inadvertantly turned into the proverbial double-edged sword, because one or more players often got ahead of themselves in terms of the game sequence.  Fortunately, they recognized what was happening and made efforts to follow the proper order.

My friend Adrian, was a participant in my second game, CWC.  He was running a 3mm CWC game next period and since this was his first time using the rules, as it was mine, he wanted to see how everything played out.  Despite his "alterior motives," I was glad to have a good friend attend one of my convention games.

By the time I ran my FWC game, I was tired but finally comfortable with my GM abilities (or lack thereof).  I chose to use these rules because I have a micro armor collection that spans WWII, through the Cold War and into the sci-fi realm.  I also plan on using FWC for mass combat in my Redshift Campaign.

After reading each set of rules, about 3 times over, I was pleased to see they played-out as I expected.  On the good side, the rules are easy to pick up.  Basically, one needs to roll a 4, 5 or 6 on a 6-sided die to successfully hit an enemy unit.  There are several modifiers and special notes that are often hard to remember, but that's the same issue with any other set of rules.

The command and control mechanism is fairly simple and certainly generates a "fog of war" feeling.  However, I'm not particularly crazy about the idea that since command units are immune to direct fire, they can race ahead of the combat units they're leading.  Since the convention, I wrote a 3-page command variant, which I plan on playtesting with my friends.  Once the bugs are worked out, I plan on incorporating this into the Redshift Chronicles--and maybe using them at the next Enfilade I attend.