RIP Brian Blume

Rest In Peace, Brian

Brian Blume Obituary

MotorChamp Racing Formula 1 Bahrain

                                                     


                                                                        Bahrain race #2 video A
                                                                   
                                                                          Bahrain video B

Team Rick Krebs (Mercedes) and driver Mark Donohue with their first win of season

And thanks to Ken Van Pelt for running this Covid19 racing series

Battle of North Point, War of 1812

General John Stricker commands the Americans (top of photo) against the British forces of General Robert Ross (bottom of photo) on September 12, 1814. The tabletop battle is using Frank's Paper armies with more playtesting of Rick's Really Simple rules for Black Powder on a hex board. 

 British left flank

 The Center of battlefield

 British Right Flank

 British Command retreats under heavy artillery and musket fire.

An American Victory despite heavy losses

Both sides took massive casualties. The American artillery performed well. Communication became an issue as the British failed to get orders to their troops for extended periods of the battle in the unfamiliar Maryland countryside. 

What a long strange adventure it has been...

                                  filled with a lot of dice rolls, fun times and great friends !

Revisiting Lion Rampant

Frank decided to use his BattleLore board with a modified version of the Lion Rampant rules.  

 The forces of Eldoria (top, North) await the arrival of the Peoples Republic of Sarcasm

 The PRoS Spears seize the woods on their left flank with eyes on the hill to the North 

 Despite hesitation to enter battle the Spears finally seize the heights. 

Eldorian mounted and foot hold their own in the center, but take loses from bows on the flank 

With their flank turned and heavy losses to their main column, the army of Eldoria retreats from battle.

                                                         Prince Codyarf  vows revenge.

I love any chance to play using the BattleLore board and terrain. Nice size hexes and simple terrain for a miniatures battle. Looking to experiment with a rules set using cards and a zone activation in the future.   

The Lost Expedition

At the September meeting of "the Exclusive Adventurers Society" presentations were given of rival members efforts to discover the Lost City of Albright.

 Unfortunately, Rick's party could not overcome a lack of food and perished. While losing a member of his party, Frank pushed through the jungle to arrive at the City of Albright. 

  A change of pace with the Lost Expedition.

Return to 4AD

The party returns to finish exploring the abandoned temple dungeon.

                                           
Using Todd C. Adams "Random events on the way to the dungeon", which can be found in the BoardgameGeek files, the party dispatched 10 vampire bats without damage to the party.

     The party avoided any wandering monsters and returned to the room where they had killed an Ogre. Filch picks a level 2 lock. In the first new room (A) they encounter another Ooze. After an extended battle during which the Ooze regenerated once, it was killed yielding 11 gold pieces. In the next corridor, they are surprised by a Manticore that damages Filch with darts from its tail and inflicts several hits on Borz (with a Z). The Manticore had only 8 gold pieces. In the next room (B), the party found a ring of teleportation by a religious statue. Continuing on, the next room (C) contained nothing even after a thorough search.
     The room (D) at the end of an empty corridor contained 7 kobolds with a Kaptain. The Kobolds were killed, but Filch, Croix and Winks took damage.  The party decided to do some healing as Filch was in bad shape. Croix provides heals and Winks uses his bandage found previously in the temple dungeon store room.
    The party enters an altar room to find a Death Cult Priest. A battle with the Boss monster ensues. Filch fails to save against Magic and takes damage. But, Winks and his 2 handed sword cleave the Priest in half. A search of the room revealed a chest with a 40 and a 15 gold piece gem. Winks the dwarf does levels up. Making its way back out of the temple dungeon, the party scared off several solitary kobolds along the way.

This completed my first dungeon crawl using the Four Against Darkness rules. I am still fine tuning how to organize the rules in order to make play easier.  The basic rules work extremely well and I enjoyed the Stronghold's expansions that definitely provided a D and D feel. This original school  Dungeon Master still has to get used to a game mechanic where the Monsters don't get dice rolls.