Game-Related Movie: Battleship

Classic Battleship

Yes, I watched Battleship. The movie based on the board game. Except that the combatants are a navy and a bunch of aliens that seemed to have decided that an aquatic base of operations was the optimal way to take over the Earth. Why not? The British did pretty well for themselves that way. Other things that the movie used from the game? How about setting up a virtual grid over the sea with which to direct Aegis missile fire? Or my favourite, the ordnance used by the invading aliens: explosive canisters shaped like the hit/miss pegs in the game.

In all the movie was better than I expected in some ways, though worse in others. Score one for the retired crewmen showing up to power up the retired USS Missouri (the first model ship I ever built) and score the winning blow. Also refreshing to see a veteran amputee as a main character. Actually, those were the highlights of the movie.

The aliens were really confusing, or just seemed confused themselves, which they might have been, having landed on a strange new world. They are trying to 'phone home' using the messaging system that signalled Earth's existence to them in the first place. They seemed to be okay with leaving humans alone, including (apparently) letting one go that had snuck into their camp, letting him just walk away with with a suitcase of super communication stuff. Were they just preserving their live for futures as slaves to the new alien overlords? Instead, the invaders prefer to destroy mechanical things and inert structures. But only some of them? No-one taught them to finish a job or what?

But the biggest laugh for me was the naming of Landsat 7 as the special satellite used to send the signals (or rather, boost them) toward the Earth-like planet. But, I guess only those familiar with Earth observation remote sensing would know that Landsat 7 (a) does not look like that, (b) is concerned only with looking at earth, not beaming signals to Rigel 12, (c) has a 16-day revisit rate, not 24 hours, and of course (d), it's broken, but that's beside the point. That point being, if you're going to have a fictitious satellite, why not give it a fictitious satellite name? How about Quarterback? Because it's passing a message. Or TinCan, 'cause it resembles a tin can phone when beaming the message? Anything!

Oh well, what more can one expect? It was an enjoyable show to watch while doing the laundry.

Further thoughts:

The aircraft carrier survives without a scratch. Don't think I've ever played a game of battleship and have a carrier survive.

During the 'sea grid and missiles' scene, the captain directing the firing should have called out D-3 (Delta 3), H-6 or one of the other coordinates that resulted in the famous "You sunk my Battleship!" from the commercials.

There were no cruisers or submarines. Cruisers may not have been much different from what was in the show, but the aliens did not seem to have an effective defense against underwater attacks. Seemed like a sub or two could have laid waste to the big boss alien structure, though I guess the shield extended under water to an unpassable depth and no sub were trapped inside. But come on! I want to see the USS Dallas pull an emergency surfacing maneuver again! "Come on, Big D! Fly!"

Photo source: www.pexels.com/photo/battleship-game-old-school-vintage-84833/, free use license.

Painting: Jedi Interceptor (Micro Machines)

So today's entry features the first of my Micro Machines Star Wars model re-paints. Yes, I am planning on doing more.

Before I get to that exciting bit, a little about the Micro Machines toys/models. Some of them are quite nice. I think that their TIE fighters are well done, and I don't plan on touching a brush to them. The same goes for the Droid Trifighter, a craft I was unfamiliar with until buying the pack that has one. I will likely leave the X-wings alone, except for the two duplicates I ended up with (both are Episode 7 versions). But the ones in my collection that cry out for a paint job are the ARC-170 and the Jedi Interceptors. I think the paint sprayers at the factory must have been mis-aligned on the one I painted as the spot that was supposed to colour the R2 unit's head looked like it was sliding off over its shoulder and running onto the craft.

One other thing to mention, a person might notice the stands I made for these Micro Machines miniatures. In the 90s, Star Wars Micros came with clear plastic stands, as did Star Trek and other sci-fi models. The ones sold in stores now do not include stands, which is just as well considering the old ones had a tendency to turn yellow with prolonged exposure to air. The ones I made are just 1 1/4" squares, about 3/8" thick with a machine bolt through the center (countersunk on the bottom). The machine bolt is just the right thickness to screw into the stand holes of the Micro Machines (yes, the holes are still included though the stands are not). Then, of course, I painted them black. I will likely paint lines for fire arcs as well.

So without any further stalling, here are the pictures of my work. Since I have to of the ships, I included the as yet unpainted one as a 'before' example.

Repaint on the right!

I dry-brushed some black smudges for battle-wear or something. Dark grey for the guns and some silver highlights here and there. Was planning on using some grey as well, but I forgot about it.

Kept the thrusters black, but dry-brushed some silver on them. The R2 unit was a little tough to get looking right, but still looks better than before.

Maybe can't tell in the image, but there's some kind of conduit visible that looks good in silver with the dark grey gun above it and the kind of dark blue around it.

Front view. A bit of a bend in the plastic so one of the wings looks out of line at the front. Wanted to highlight the TIE fighter-like window on the front of the cockpit. This window is not painted in on the original, which kinda makes it look weird.

All in all, a fun project. Turned out better than expected. As all of my model painting has been so far, I used craft acrylics with an finishing clear coat of Pledge with Future Shine. Itching to do some more, but can't make up my mind about which one to do next!

Siege the Day!

We were cleaning up for for Lawrence's upcoming birthday party. After vacuuming the floor, Lawrence wanted to play the castle game. Well, a nice, clean and uncluttered floor makes getting out the Siege! game so much easier. And a nice, thickish carpet makes for great slowing terrain, meaning errant shots don't roll too far away from the play area.

So we set it up, I did the fiddly castle-building while Lawrence set up the trees - his favourite part, next to shooting the siege weapons. We don't play the full rules, he gets tired of them too quickly, so we just set up some dudes and start firing.

The enemy siege works from the tower.

Some of the plastic soldiers were snapped off of their bases the last time they battled - the fight was unsupervised, I only saw the aftermath. I think the two sides must have resorted to the use of feet. Thus we can't fully staff the castle complement and invading army. In fact, some mercenaries were spotted...

The view from the invaders' side. Note time-travelling mercenary (centre).

I'm liking the catapults more for long range firing each time I pull this out. There's one on the right of the above image. I  seem to be more successful with them than with the cannon or the ballista, which are more deadly up close. But I seldom get so close. Of course, because of their coolness factor, I seldom get to use the cannon or ballista. There is a measure of control with the catapults: they have little adjustable bumpers to restrict how far back the flinging arm can go, so you can use that to set the general range and you ad least won't overshoot the target so often. The cannon only has one firing power: super hard. It does have a height adjustment, but that rarely seems to make a difference over the shots. I do like the ballista, which again allows more control over the power of the shot and so seems to allow the shooter to be more accurate. 

We never do figure out a winner. Lawrence has a hard time hitting any of my guys unless he is up close and then his guys start to respawn after a certain loss threshold is reached. 

Anyway, this game is bit nostalgic since I basically played the same thing with my brothers. We would divide dominoes and army men to build up our armies, then flick a marble at each other's forces. I remember seeing this game in the Sears Christmas catalogue or something and wanting it in order to upgrade the way we played at home.

Always fun though. Who doesn't want to to use catapults and cannons to fling marbles at an "exploding" castle.

Started one way, went another.

Boy, I keep hitting end of the month in my posting. I've got a couple of things I should post about at some point, but I want to wait a bit 'cause there ain't much to say about them. But I will tell a story. A story of hope, then woe, then searching, then rejoicing, then trepidation, then acceptance, and finally of compromise.

The Hope:

You may remember from previous posts my desire to build a gaming table for me to keep ongoing games in as I tend to life in between taking turns.

Well, I helped out with a little demolition project at the village skating rink and took home some of the discarded 2x6 planks that I thought would be useful for making a table. I switched up the design in my head again (and then again, and then another time) for how I am going to build my table.

On Friday, I decided to do it! I went out to the shed, pulled out those boards and started measuring and marking and cutting.

As the boards still had white paint on them or were fuzzy and uneven where there was no paint, I laid them out to go over them with a belt sander.

The Woe:

Sanding away and I start seeing green parts where I have gone over with the sander. Little patches of green are appearing all over the wood. Oh no! Is it pressure treated wood? There's no little holes, but that doesn't always mean there's no chemical. I've heard it's no good to use treated lumber indoors, it's toxic or something right?

The Searching:

Then I think, it can't be that bad can it? I go to Google. There's some woodworking sites and house inspection company sites weighing in on the question of using treated lumber indoors. Turns out...

The Rejoicing:

...it's not that bad! As long as you aren't eating off the surface or burning the wood and inhaling the smoke, there is no danger! Especially if finished with a good penetrating stain! I planned to finish it anyway. Yay! I can still use the wood! But I'll buy a mask for sanding it!

The Trepidation:

But there's still the green colour. I won't like that on there, and what if it remains more or less visible, even after staining? What if I decide to sell or give the table away? I might be okay with what I found out about the wood treatments, but others won't be. I'd feel bad giving someone something they didn't agree with without their knowledge.

The Acceptance

I don't want to use treated wood to make a table. Not knowing if the green will be covered adequately, or knowing it's treated but just not telling people who I know would not want to use it, even if their fears are unfounded.

The Compromise

So, hey. It's pressure treated wood. Good for using outdoors. The concrete flags at the bottom of our entrance stairs are all wonky and pose a tripping hazard. I'll use the wood to make a stair to cover up those slabs and reduce that risk. I, guess I can wait a little longer for my table.

Star Wars: Silent Death - a build-up

Let's get off of Hoth!

Lately I have been building more space ships. Not carving them like my others. Building them. Out of paper.


The sudden surge in star fighter construction was indirectly triggered by (but directly related to) an impulse purchase of some Star Wars Micro Machines that were on sale at the grocery store I frequent. Today I saw them putting the toys into a clearance bin, meaning I may be tempted in the future to get some more, if the prices go down even further.

What I bought on sale, grouped by pack.

My justification for a purchase I'm currently not so sure was well thought-out, but which I do not yet regret, was to use the miniatures in an X-Wing Miniatures style of game. X-Wing is based on a miniatures series I already own parts of, and have also carved my own models for, and that is Wings of Glory (previously Wings of War). The two games have much in common:

- simple unit movement using pre-set templates,
- simple method of firing and damage allotment,
- high quality, pre-painted minis
- an element of collecting (base games are only enough to whet the appetite)
- small scale, thus as a miniatures game, it is accessible to miniatures noobs like me

In my opinion, it is the Star Wars franchise that is the main factor driving X-Wing to edge out WoG in what I perceive to be a greater level of popularity. Another factor may also be the use of cards in X-Wing that represent special weapons, droids, and characters from the galaxy far, far away that are used to beef up a ship in-game, making it more deadly or harder to destroy or whatever. Now, there are fans doing the same for WoG, but it's a tacked on addition and I think it takes a while of getting the hang of playing the game as is before people want to tackle that additional complexity. I think it just works better in X-Wing because fans of the Star Wars movies and books recognize and want to use their favourites. I could only name one fighter ace of World War II, and that only because I played the heck out of the air combat game he endorsed and read his autobiographic works.

For all those reasons in my list of bullet-points, I would love to own X-Wing too. The thing that keeps me from making that purchase, besides the fact that I know I would end up wanting to buy more ships (an expensive proposition), is the idea of the pre-game mixing and matching of ships, pilots, special weapons, etc. to get to the point value decided on for a match. I don't feel like I would enjoy that very much.

Which brings me back to my purchase of Micro Machines models to build an alternative.

As I said, I wanted to use them in a table top star fighters game. Once I got them home, I was scouring the Internet for rules I could use my newly acquired spaceships in and came across Star Wars: Silent Death Starfighter Combat Game. This is a Star Wars adaptation of an already existing game called Silent Death. Well, the problem I quickly ran into was the the need for more ships to fill out the scenario rosters included in the rules. This naturally led to a desire to build up a squadron of TIE fighters, which is actually rather difficult to do with without acquiring a glut of X-Wings and a bunch of unwanted miniature models.

So I started searching online again, only this time for collections of one type of fighter, i.e., a squadron of TIEs. Tried eBay, only to find that it would be just as expensive as building up squads by buying all kinds of vehicle packs for the one or two ships I might want from each. Then I came across some pictures of papercraft fleets. There are a number of files available for download that you just print the patterns on card stock, cut out and fold/glue the bits together and get any number of nice-looking miniatures for pennies apiece. After the ensuing downloading spree, I printed A-Wings and TIE Fighters so I could build them and play the first Scenario included with the SW:SD rules: 2 A-Wings vs. 3 TIEs. (Battle report next post.)

I have a number of other papercraft models downloaded that I have never built (mostly 28mm scale buildings), maybe I'm a little intimidated by them, maybe I didn't know where I'd keep them, maybe I just wanted to have some for the future possibility of wanting to build them. Likely a mixture of all three. But I wanted these ones and I dove right in!

Building is taking me a little longer than I had imagined, maybe 30 minutes per ship if I am "in the zone." But building 1 or 2 each day, I am now up to the following paper ship collection:

5 A-Wings, four of which I transposed the Basic (that's Star Wars alphabet) equivalents of A thru D onto the fins before printing

a small freighter they call Otana, reminiscent of the Millenium Falcon, but different, and a B-Wing

3 TIEs (foreground; one "Big Gun Prototype"? not familiar with where that comes in) and 3 TIE Interceptors (background; again, one is a prototype with some kind of rocket launchers mounted on it, which I am also not familiar with).

In the end, the building is so fun, I want to do more! Originally arranged to be of similar scale to Star Wars Miniatures: Starship Battles, these turned out smaller than Micro Machine size, but Micro Machines aren't known for sticking to a certain scale, so that's okay. Maybe later I will worry about that, and maybe not.

It may turn out in the end that the greatest enjoyment I'll get from the money I spent on those toys will be from turning them over to the kids, maybe as a reward for doing something hard. Or maybe just because I want to!

Islands of Fun

There's too many fun things to work on! At the rate I'm going of adding a little bit here and a little bit there to my ongoing build-a-game-at-home projects, I don't know if I'll ever finish one enough to play!

Okay, it's not that bad. I could play Full Thrust right now, I've got enough scratch-built vessels and stands for it, bits to use for counters, dice, and a star field battle map with hex-grid (optional). It's just that can't feel like it's finished enough to play until I've played it. Other games I've built for a set of downloaded rules I have played solo to get a hang of how it's played. For some reason, I keep balking at setting up FT to do the same, even with the modification I use to get around the secret movement orders aspect.

Recently, I added another title to my list of games for which I have rules, but for which I need to gather/build components. This time the game is called Silent Death, only what I downloaded was a special Star Wars themed version of the rules that was originally printed in a magazine. This I did after buying some packs of Micro Machines Star Wars star fighters that were on sale with the sole intention of using them in gaming. There's a few more things to be done to make it playable (some stands for the models being foremost).

No real update on Pulp Alley. I think my daughter would like it, but I still wait.

Mostly I wait for the time that I have a table where I can leave a game set up. I've got lots of wood (from the dump) with which to build a table plus a piece of MDF for the playing surface. I no longer have a nicely heated and wired garage in which to run a table saw or work in after the daylight is gone. I also have had, and now have, other projects to finish first. It will happen, though.

But, enough of that. The real reason I wanted write something, besides the fact it's been a month since my last post (Happy New Year, by the way), is some inspiration I had from a video I happened across. I happened to have some styrofoam, not the kind he used in the video, but the kind more commonly used for packing. Also had a couple game boards from games that were picked up especially for their components only. Of course, there's all those craft paints from my sister too.

Yes, I made islands for use with the sailing ships acquired in April! And here they are! Enjoy!

Searching the islands for pirates.

The sandy bases are cut out of a game board. The back side is facing up, which has a texture that shows through the paint, looks a bit like sand. The rest of each island is made of the styrofoam. Dark brown or black was used as an undercoat all over. Then paint layered and dry-brushed: two or three layers, dark to light, for the rocks, grass, and sand. Worked out pretty good though!

Time to hit the slopes!

I like being out-of-doors, but not so much in winter-time. While I generally just dislike the cold, I also don't have any winter hobbies that one would normally do outside. I don't ski or snowboard and I don't want to pay for the equipment. I can't skate. And with that, there's only one affordable conventional winter sport left that I can pull myself into the cold air for.

We went sledding last week near my parents' place. Dad has a small wooden sled and a crazy carpet. They worked great. The little kids each got to hit a little jump at the bottom in the little wooden sled. We also had our little foam sled that you need to push all the way down the hill. I needed to push the foamy one all the way down the hill.

None of these sleds had steering. I like steering on a sled. It got me thinking again about building sleds and stuff. So, the last few days I've been looking at sleds and other hill-descent contraptions and came across something that I had the necessary parts for.

Today, I had the itch to make something, so make I did! I have a scooter with no wheels that I picked up at the dump. I also picked up some old skis someone was throwing away. In fact, I think just about everything I used on this project was from the dump.

I made a ski-scoot! Or whatever it can be called. A scooter with skis instead of wheels.

It's my ski-scoot.

It was a rush to get it done before I lost daylight, but I did. Excited to try it out soon.