Trip to Balkans - part 1

DISCLAIMER: Purpose of this post is not of educational nature and historical facts have been greatly simplified.

Hello guys,

I've been on a road trip across the Balkan peninsula (okay, just to Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia :P) this weekend and figured I'd share some of the more interesting photos with you. As the purpose of the trip was for my dad to get to know some of the more touristy spots (he's a tour guide), it was mostly driving and not not much actual sightseeing. Still, I've managed to snap some shots that might serve as a nice inspiration for some readers.


To start with, some burned houses. I saw some nice overgrown ruins for Post apoc games, but couldn't take photos. As these are remains from the last war, I found it a bit tasteless to snap photos where people were around. Strictly viewing them as a source of terrain building inspiration, they might be quite handy. Some houses are really large. It's same in Slovenia, apparently Yugoslavia was a great country to build oversized houses, but lately not many can afford them anymore.

 Below is a WW2 era bunker. I haven't found any good info on the internet about them. They are certainly axis, but some people call them "German" while my dad think they belonged to Ustashe (Croatian fascists). I really like the design, it looks like a little castle.

 

 

 Photo below is a bit of a joke. The writing says "Garages for guests of the restaurant" and we found it quite funny. The restaurant itself was very nice building, with walls decorated with pebbles. It had parking space outside, so we didn't have to try and squeeze our car in this fabulous garage :D.

 Another WW2 axis blockhouse, much larger design this time.

 Below is a house where Sarajevo defenders (Sarajevo was under siege for duration of war in Bosnia) dug a tunnel. Tunnel was 800 meters long and was running under UN controlled airfield. It connected city defenders to Bosniak controlled territory and it is probably the sole reason Sarajevo didn't surrender during what has been the longest siege in modern history.

 Here are some random items, like shovels, ammo crates and a little push cart that was used to transport goods.

 An entrance to the tunnel. It was 1.6m high and a meter wide. It sucks to walk in it as it is, imagine having a 30 kilogram backpack on your back.

 This kind Turkish mister was kind enough to pose as a model inside  the tunnel. He actually took photo of me first and then returned the favor :P.

 Here is a very simple map of the siege. There were more complicated maps that had involved units drawn in, but this one is just as good. Long story short, Sarajevo is a nice multicultural city that hosted Winter Olympic games back in 1984 (so, an equivalent to Sochi). 8 years later, war breaks up in Bosnia and multicultural neighbors start hating each other. Serbian populations flees the city, only leaving adult men behind. Serbian forces encircle the city and keep it under siege for almost 4 years. In the mean time, they use heavy weaponry on the city defenders and Serbian men that  stayed inside snipe around. Do keep in mind, it wasn't THAT one sided, though. In the bottle neck, there is a UN held airport under which the tunnel ran.

 And a close up on tunnel area:
Olimpijsko selo translates to "Olympic village". In Butmir, EUFOR had their military base just 5 years ago, when I was visiting Sarajevo for the first time. The base is now gone, but we were told situation is not as pleasant as it might seem. Not much else can be expected, really.

 Given how 2014 marks 100 years since the start of WW1, here are this period related photos. On this exact corner (that was swarmed by Italian tourists when I came there :P) Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. Few years back I was in Vienna museum where they keep his clothes and car, but it seems I don't have the photos anymore.

 What I do have, however, are photos from Czech fort (turned prison in Austro-Hungary, turned Nazi concentration camp during Second World War) Terezin, where Gavrilo Princip, the assassin, was held. Conveniently, I was there last year :P. Terezin as such is a very, very depressing sight and people actually still live there. During WWII,  Terezin was a "stop point" for inmates, that were then transported to other concentration camps. This camp was spruced up a bit for Red cross visit, which made it look like Jews and other prisoners are having a great time, their bank and even their currency. But after that visit, things quickly went back to how they were.

To a more joyful topic, here is a "sebil" - a stone/wooden turkish style fountain in the centre of the city:

 And fezzes. Because apparently, fezzes are cool.

 A random bridge across river Drina in Višegrad below:

 And a WW1 memorial. Serbia was an independent kingdom back then and while occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces, won the war with allies.

This is more or less where photos from Bosnia end and I'll show the rest next time. I got some nice photos of a fortified monastery that I found quite interesting.

I've always enjoyed trips to Bosnia, but I can't really point my finger on what drags me there. The food is absolutely fantastic (kinda like hamburger, but with better meat and accompanied by a stottie - them Geordies are everywhere!), and I like the diversity of the country. Not that I'm a religious nut, but in Sarajevo alone, you can see Catholic and Orthodox churches, mosques and even synagogues. The core of the city centre is turkish, but the city itself is much like other Austro-Hungarian cities. Country as such is nice and hilly, and it seems like a really nice play to be before the war. Now there are some fantastic modern buildings here and there, but in general it seems like time has stopped at least 30 years ago.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Insurgency rising - part 9

Hello guys,

I got three more insurgents to show today. I've painted those a while ago, but kept holding them back to push forward the terrain and scenario I've posted few days back. Okay, a week back - time really flies by!

We got three riflemen today, two of them armed with standard AKs and one has a British SA80 rifle. Again, not that it really matters.

Guy on the left has his balaclava rolled up as he rests. Apart from somewhat elaborate vest and camouflage pants, he wears civilian clothes. There's something about flashy blue snickers that appeals to me, so he wears those :P
Guy in the middle is more or less same as any other, but he wears a handkerchief to cover his identity. Being true to his "gangsta " spirit, he carelessly sprays with his AK, effectively wasting ammo!
Looks like insurgent's depot ran out out vests for the third guy and he had to do with a simple bag. It's an actual design and it's is actually meant to store  gas mask in it.

Not much else to say about them - they are grunts as any others and thus very simple. I have made a mandatory group shot of painted insurgents below. There is 12 of them now, which is close to half, but not quite there yet!

In other news hobby front is somewhat silent again. I'm painting another batch of insurgents (very slowly) and I've been converting some miniatures for the fantasy campaign, but over all it's all moving forward little by little every few days. I've been on a short trip today (to Čedad, a town founded by Julius Caesar that's especially known from the Langobardes). I took some photos and I'll post the more interesting ones in one of my random posts.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Strange Aeons AAR: Farmer Janez's salvation

Hello guys,

after a long break, I've finally decided to play a game of Strange Aeons again. I've played solo this time and decided to take a story telling approach. The scenario played was based on The restless dead from Morbid adventures expansion booklet, but I've done some tweaks to better suit it my needs. I have ignored the rule that says there must be more lurker models than threshold models and I've used those profiles:
A mummy for the vampire, mostly for the command and toughness, he is the bad guy in this game after all.
Two zombies for ghosts. I could simply use zombie miniatures, but I decided to go with ghosts as they are better representations of "flickering lights" that are believed to be the souls of the dead in tales. I could also use actual ghost profiles, but zombies came out more practical for my needs.

For agents, I felt like I had too many points for the first time, when making a list! I used a character, two agents and a civilian.

To avoid filling the tale with various explanations, here are the most important ones:
- Janez Novak is pronounced "Yanes" and it is to us what John Smith is to English.
- Marija is pronounced "Maree-yah" and is an equivalent of Mary, so obviously a very popular name in the past.
- Jakob Kelemina, pronounced "Yakob", wrote a book on Slovenian myths and tales in 1930, so he seemed like the best candidate for our hero :P.
- Brezglavec, pronounced "Bres-glavets" meaning "Headless one" is a spirit of an unbaptised child. In my version, this is simply a spirit of a man who died without a proper burial. Conveniently, one miniature is actually headless.

October, 1931. A year ago, Jakob Kelemina published his book on local myths and folklore and he quickly became widely respected as one of the best experts on the subject. This is, indeed, a reason that mrs. Novak, a widow, residing in a remote sub alpine farmstead has contacted him as soon as curious things started taking place both in, and around her home. She claimed...odd things are taking place since her late husband, one Janez Novak has passed away. She is frequently hearing screeching noises from the forests at nights. She is on the edge of losing her sanity at the sight of her farm servants, that passed away ages ago (all died of unexplained, violent causes) walking around the fields that she inherited after her husband's death. But the strangest, and for old and lonely widow, the happiest is her late husband's nightly visits - he joins her in bed every night, as he has done before he died! For Janez, a hardworking farmer and a loving husband, was a sinner. In the past decades, stories have spread about local forests being cursed - travelers, adventurers and even some of Janez's farm servants went missing frequently! There are more versions of the stories, but all of them have the same ending - people traveling through forested hilly area in vicinity of Janez's farmstead, where there are no eyes and no ears to tell the tales, have a high chance for a so-called "violent departure". Many were never seen again.

When Jakob has heard about mrs. Novak's husband coming back to her bed, he was startled - he quickly brought to his memory numerous stories of vampires he collected from other people in the area. The tales of dead people, coming back to life could be anything from comical to down right frightening. He could've never imagined that he would live to see an actual krvoses - a blodsucker. And on top of it - he had to make sure to do all that is in his power to send the poor soul to the place of everlasting rest. He wished not to burden mrs. Novak with queries about the strange cases of deaths that took  place on their land, but asking around in the local taverns lead him to believe Janez is a damned soul, paying for the sins he committed in his life. This theory, Jakob assumed, was supported by mrs. Novak's visions of said servants - without a proper burial their souls seem to enrage after their murderer's death. There is only one way to resolve this mystery - the dreaded vampire has to be dug out and proper measures have to be taken to prevent his returns. Servant's remains have to be find and cleansed by giving them proper burial. 

Early next morning, mr. Kelemina and two of his dearest friends, priest Anton and adventurer Tristan payed mrs. Novak a visit...

 She greeted them with her loyal farm servant, Pavel, at her side. Jakob could see the past events have taken a great toll on her health - she was all stooped and seemed so frightened, all the blood has escaped her face...making her pale as a chalk.

"T...t...thank you f-for c-c-coming on s-such a short n-notice...m-mr. Kelemina", mrs. Novak patiently stuttered. She followed by slowly explaining once again what she has witnessed in the past days. 

Kelemina was not wasting any time and he knew where to start - at late Janez's grave. He was burried in the orchard he cared about so much. Pavel, mrs. Novak's servant, has offered to lead them to the grave. Mrs. Novak insisted on him taking her late husband's hunting rifle...shall anything go wrong. Forests are close and one can never know when a bear or a pack of wolves might find their way to the property...not to mention the latest events. What if the wandering souls prove dangerous?
Deeply worried of his team's safety, Kelemina himself took a shotgun from his car. Tristan wouldn't leave his house without double .45 - his pride and joy anyways and as for father Anton...he condemned violence. But after brief convincing from the rest of the lads, he reluctantly took a knife with him...just in case.

Pavel has only lead them pass the hayrack, when they have already spotted a flickering light, drifting in the early morning mist. Pavel, a man of a simple mind, was only familiar with the restless spirits from the tales he listened to as a kid. Nevertheless, he aimed his late master's rifle at the abomination and fired a shot. Used to pitchforks more than a rifle, even he himself was amazed as he has hit the moaning  soul. At the impact of the bullet, the light dispersed and got lost in the thick mist. 

 Group was quite startled, and didn't quite knew what to think of their experience. They have slowly moved towards the grave. A lot of works still needs to be done and their knees are already shaky! 

Kelemina has only made few steps forward and he got stopped right in his tracks. "Lads," he shouted to get the group's attention "there he is...he really is walking!" he was amazed. For the first time in his long career, after all those stories - he saw an actual vampire, slowly wandering around his grave under a dried out plum tree. 

Pavel's joy at dispersing a spectre was short lived as another one approached from the other direction! Father Anton has quickly suggested the remains of the all three undead must be found and put to rest, or the frightening visions will never cease! Kelemina was awaken from his day dreaming as a sense of danger has filled his senses - the undead farmer has turned towards them! After a quick setback, he has boldly decided to face this work of Satan and father Anton was already crossed himself at the vision of the earthly devil. He shall cleanse him or die trying! Tristan, as adventures as he was, saw a chance for eternal glory and boldly (or stupidly) charged the dead man. Servant Pavel, on the other hand, was nothing like him. Poor man's nerves snapped and he felt on the ground, crying in mortal horror. He, personally has buried the old farmer and now he is alive? How could that be?

Tristan charged, drawing his knife and not the stench nor dead man's red, devilish glowing eyes could stop him in his search for global glory and recognition. All his enthusiasm and bravery were in vain, and after blocking his initial charge, the dastardly Vampire clutched Tristan with his bony fingers and started sucking his blood, leaving young man to fall unconscious. Hellish fiend didn't stop at that and as he sucked the brain of the poor young man, his friends grew pale with terror.  

The loss of a friend hasn't left Kelemina and father Anton untouched. They were decided to avenge their friend and Kelemina started blasting with his shot gun at the Vampire like a mad man. When Kelemina's shot hit, the sinner was visibly hurt, judging by his hellish scream. The power of a shot was so strong, he was knocked back! "This is not good enough!" Kelemina though for himself, while reloading his weapon. He channeled all his sorrow and hatred into concentration, pulled a trigger and blew the devil's head right off his shoulders!

In the mean time, father Anton has decided to do his part in the avenging of a friend, as well. Calling to Christ the savior for his courage, Anton charged the headless spectre. Unfortunately, this day was not his and flickering Brezglavec had no problem disposing with a threat.

Witnessing death of another of his friend hasn't changed Kelemina's dedication to stop farmer Novak's awakenings. The same can not be said for servant Pavel, however. Seeing Kelemina blowing up Vampire's head as a watermelon, Pavel raised to aid his new friends, but seeing a holy man die like that...this was more than Pavel could take. He screamed in mortal fear and ran towards the farm.

Kelemina knew it was a point of do or die. He pumped his shotgun once again, and, blinded by the anger and sadness, fired without aiming. It was a costly mistake, as Brezglavec had his full attention now. Kelemina took a deep breath, reloaded his weapon one, last time, aimed and pulled the trigger. Bang! Right on target. Pellets from a shell were scattered all around, hitting the vegetation the spectre was lurking in and for a moment, Kelemina was afraid his last chance was wasted. Nevertheless, the spectre left out a dying sound and the light dispersed. 

While running away like a headless chicken, servant Pavel caught with an edge of his eye the spectre's undoing. He slowly returned to Kelemina and helped him bury his two friends and mr. Novak - once again. Unfortunately, there was no priest around to cleanse farmer Novak's soul, but they have taken all other precautions to prevent Vampire's return. They have but the remains of his head between his leg and even impaled his stone cold heart with a hawthorn stake. 

In one of the following days, Janez Novak's grave was visited by a Catholic priest that has cleansed his soul and, hopefully, gave his soul an everlasting rest. 
The remains of the two spectres that were encountered, were also found. They were both buried around the archard. Their remains were taken to the local church and were given a proper burial on a sacred ground. 

The vampire's menace was over, but at a cost of two, fine men's lives. 

 After game thoughts:

Well, this post is a lot longer than I planned, but hopefully it made an enjoyable read. While I was throwing dice for combat results, I have to admit I went easy on the team and I didn't use the rule where zombies (so, spectres in my game) would respawn from the graves. Even without that, the good guys barely won.
Other than that, I quite enjoyed the twist on the rules and I'm already thinking of incorporating Werewolf or Deep one profiles in one of the next games. I'm certainly missing some mob characters that would fit in well with the narrative game play - perhaps a pack of Transylvanian mob from Westwind wouldn't go amiss!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Some new terrain

Hello guys,

I've finally been working on some terrain for my games again. With all the posts about Salute ruining my days lately, I have also started unearthing old stuff that is either half made or still packed. That includes resin crates and barrels, some miniatures (I am putting off painting cultists as I'm afraid I'd never get colours same again :P) and lots of smaller scatter terrain.

Anyways, I have been thinking and planning about setting (some of) my Strange Aeons games in Slovenia for a very long time (remember the three bridges board idea that never progressed?). As this project overlaps with my idea of  "Slovenian mythology" games, set in Dark ages, and I thus read a lot on the subject lately, I've decided to play some games with what I already have in my collection.

Before I could start, I needed just one piece of terrain that defines the local area more than anything else I could imagine - a Hayrack. We call it "kozolec" which would be pronounced something like "kozolets". It's an awesome little device and while outdated, they can still be found on most of farmsteads in at least one of their forms.  I went with the most basic of the designs - single straight line (Check link above for more variants, some are really great). To make building it easier, I went with stone pillars instead of usual wooden ones. And I also used way too few vertical poles, that are used to hang on hay. As it was a rush job, the pillars are awfully crooked, but that's fine as I was aiming for backwater place anyways. I added some logical supports and talking of the vertical poles, I really should break one, to add the feel of neglect. I did, however, sculpt some hay on it, so that's a plus.

 The shingles are on a large side, which might not look as realistic as loads of little ones, but I actually prefer the cartoony "warhammer" feel they make. Don't unfriend me, Joe! :D

Below is a painted version. It's painted horribly as my craft paints seem to be kinda odd. Or I could blame the brushes.

As I was so inspired, I've also painted a very simple hill I've made last year. I kinda like it now that it's painted, but I was putting off painting it for so long for a reason unknown. It's just boring, you know...a hill. Yawn.

It's made for miniatures to fit on it and yes, I am aware I should put more effort in the overall shape, but it will do for a while!

On other fronts, after millionth try on the guns, I've decided it is time for drastic measures. As none of the guns felt quite right, I simply cut off all the putty from one of those, cut the nose and restarted from step one.

Keep in mind F2000 is only about 700mm long in real life, so 12mm seems about right. The guns above it are the "old kind" for comparison. Mine is a bit crude, but I have decided to call it done. If I'll try to have it cast and then polish it and add the gadgets.

I had great plans for my Whateley farm model - from housing an abomination from out of space, to secret laboratory of Herbert West (I never got to build an autopsy table, that I've planned - I should do that!), Church for an evil cult and...naturally, a distillery. I've even made a still for it. It never got painted beyond basic undercoat and seeing it now, I'll swap that wire for something just a bit thinner and I'll coil it more. I will keep the "pot" and the "barrel", I think.

Lastly, a photo of my current (okay, about a session or two outdated) sculpting "table". In upper left quarter are modern weapons and modern sculpts (kinda on hold for now), lower left corner is Kurent (came out too thin - I can't lose that habit!), which is essentially a man wearing mask, cow bells and a baton with hedge hog skin. Back in the days (so, when SA takes place!) the groups could fight each other, so it seemed like a good idea for a lurker - a mad man, hitting people with his club while making noise with the bells - yes please! The large guy is Horroclix's fiend (Frankenstein's monster) that Vampifan kindly donated. He will become a Slovenian demigod for the Dark ages myths games. In the right upper corner are dead bodies (disturbingly ugly sculpts, rushjobs), 4 beastmen, being turned into dog headed soldiers (that hate humanity!) and a "fire elemental" that will probably be painted by a stone idol or whatever. I've been "working" on this one for well over a year, but I'm not too satisfied with it. Lastly, the 4 GW wolves are a Wolf herder (mythological creature) and his pack. They are way too "undead" and certianly waaaay too large for my liking, but I got them as a bargain, so they will be used as a stand ins until I get my hands on some proper werewolves.

That's it for today. I've also played a game (yay!) and I will post report in mid week one day. It's gonna be a bit different than what I usually posted, but just as long, filled with endless blabber! :P

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Insurgency rising - part 8

Hey guys,

 here are the last of the insurgents I've converted from WGF plastic survivors.

There's six of them, for total of 27 (remaining three miniatures from the box are "the kid").
We got, rifleman (that looks like a leader, but he honestly isn't!),  another rifleman, RPK, yet another two riflemen and an RPG.

Below are the close ups, with one back shot missing (I know, I know).

Here you can see the two riflemen and a guy with an RPK support weapon. First rifleman seems to be giving some directions, so he could also be used as a leader. As I've got enough of them already (guys with radios), he is represented here as a grunt, but he could really be anything. Other than that he is quite basic, has an "ordinary" vest and an AK. I've also just noticed all three of them have baseball hats, so I won't be painting them together :P.
Not much to say about the second guy, either. Both him and the first rifleman got one of the "awkward" poses that I think came out very natural looking.
The RPK gunner wears a coat. I really didn't want all of the coat wearing guys to be armed with an M16, so I gave him an AK instead. If you remember last time, I've shown you a guy with two magazines stuck to each other. This is the gun I got the magazine from. So I wouldn't waste a perfectly nice weapon, I've sculpted drum magazine instead. It fits the weapon in real life (although it wasn't used much in Yugoslavia), so it looks cool, different and it isn't far from the truth!

Below are another two riflemen (they are the backbone of any forces, after all!) and an RPG gunner.
The fat man is the same as any other, but I've added him some sleeves, so at least something is different. I was thinking about giving him an M16 (for same reasons as the guy with the coat), but when  picking between the two, AK always wins.
Second rifleman is a bit more special, as he has a backpack. Not many of my insurgents carry one and this one is that much nicer as it's kinda detailed :D. You can see water bottle in one of the side pockets in the back photo.
Lastly, the RPG gunner in a "rest" or "preparing" or "whatever" position. I gave him a balaclava as no other RPG gunner has it. I am not too happy with this one, but it really comes down to this body. While it seems natural on the first inspection, all three of them look so...stiff? Just odd.

Well, that's all I got for you today. I've actually painted three that I got to show you and I'm painting some terrain for a Strange Aeons game I have planned. I am still working on fantasy creatures and hopefully I'll have some done and painted in a fortnight or so.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo