Thunderboats and Eyestrain

Last weekend five of us got together at The Game Matrix to try the Thunderboat rules once more. Son Casey, rules designer Dave Schueler, Dave Demick, and model maker Sean McEvoy met me in South Tacoma for three heats of racing.

It was my first opportunity to haul all six of my finished boats out on to the game table. It was truly a blast. The rules are just amazing, and the drivers are really forced to make a lot of dangerous decisions. I won the first heat despite a bunch of very aggressive decisions, and the dice were with me. Things did not go so well for me in the following heats. Daveshoe had some astonishingly bad die rolls and I'm not sure he ever completed a lap. There are a couple of differences between this game and Golden Age Air Racing. First, is that it is much more difficult to re-roll out of aggressive choices. Drivers are much more constantly on the edge. It is important to finish laps, and disaster seems much closer for the boat drivers than the air racers. Second, is the chance cards. Chance cards are bad. They are almost always bad, except when they are good--which is about a quarter of the time. Unlike the air racing, I can almost see myself playing it safe sometimes.

I've included pictures of all the boats and some racing courtesy Dave Schueler

I've finished up a few more AWI militia, because one simply cannot have too many. However, I'm going back to 15mm for to wrap up a few more loose end projects. I am finally painting my early Roman DBA army. They are an enemy for my Early Etruscans. The only problem I've ever had is coming up with a suitable color scheme for them, particularly the shield patterns. I'll just have to do my best.

When the Romans are finished, I'm taking on a long time unfinished project--my 15mm Hallmark figures from the First Jacobite Rebellion in 1689. These are beautiful true 15's. I've always wanted to paint them, but have never really had a suitable set of rules. I've decided to adopt the King's War rules by Bruce Bretthauer over DBR, because the latter makes all the highlanders warbands, and liable to being shot down rather ineffectually. In King's War there are some special highlander rules that gives 'em a fighting chance. In any case, I have a enough figures painted for a couple units on each side. I've ordered some Litko bases, as well as a few more command figures to fill things out. It should be fun.