A Tale of Two Stumps

This started out as a project to put something a little more organic on tables than the blocks of foam and plastic we're used to seeing. Tree stumps for what ever reason is what I latched onto.

It was a mix of known and suspect for me. I know we can produce a descent tree stump. I suspect it can be done in such a way to make it reproducible for a low cost.

It was a bit of unknown territory so I opted to proceed as cheaply as possible.

Barrel Block Terrain

I've had a project with the oil barrels kicking around in my head. Originally I thought I would just be casting offf of a couple dozen barrels and stack them however to produce an interesting piece.

 Easy peazy

Enter the NOVA Open.

Suddenly I'm looking to get an easy feature add to tables that wasn't just a repetitive element but could offer a bit of customization. The random stacked mass of barrels is not going to cut it for build time. To much gluing and waiting to produce the numbers we need in a reasonable time frame.

Forged in Battle 15mm Polish Black Brigade To Be Released End Of October

Back in April, Forged in Battle Miniatures provided previews of their upcoming Early War Polish Black Brigade 15mm figures.  Since then, the release of the figures seems to have fallen off the radar.

In checking on the Forged in Battle Facebook page, I found a recent posting from Forged in Battle that the Polish Black Brigade figures are scheduled for release at the end of October.

First Foray Into Star Wars X-Wing Miniature Game

I have wargaming A.D.D.   It's a problem, I know, but I really just don't care.   To illustrate my gaming A.D.D., I provide the following example:

About three weeks ago, Fantasy Flight Games released their Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game.  I have been following the development of this game for about a year, and was excited about its release.  When it came out, I bought a starter box set and one of each of the expansions.  Subsequently, I bought a number of additional expansions to grow my fleet, and am now up to four X-Wings, five Tie Fighters, two Y-Wings and two Tie Advanced (did I happen to mention my wargaming A.D.D.)

The game's rules are a very quick read, and easy to pick up.   Also, Fantasy Flight Games put the game rules online, which allowed me to read over them while I was waiting for the box set I ordered to arrive.  As I said, the rules are easy to get a basic handle of, but with the combination of different ships, pilots, skills, astromechs, and secondary weapons, there is enough variation in the game which allows for deeper strategies and is difficult to truly master.

On Saturday I headed over to Game Parlor in Chantilly, Virginia to get in my first game of X-Wing.   The guys over at A Few Maneuvers (the unofficial Star Wars X-Wing game site) set up a meet up, and when I arrived, Roy, the creator of A Few Maneuvers, was going through the ropes with his friend Jarrod.  After Jarrod was done putting the Imperial smack down on Roy's Rebels (just what the Rebel scum deserve, what with their trying to upset the law and order the Imperial military has tried so hard to maintain), we decided to get a team game going.

No Matter Where You Go... There You Are

Welcome young and old, boys and girls, to the Team Banzai Wargaming blog.

So what, you may ask, is Team Banzai?   Team Banzai is a tabletop miniature wargaming group scattered around the U.S.  Originally it was a group that attended Games Workshop Grand Tournaments, but subsequently morphed into a group that expanded outside of just Games Workshop products.   Currently members of Team Banzai play a whole slew of tabletop miniature games (because a number of us have gamer A.D.D.).   Personally, I started with Battletech, moved to Warhammer 40K, then went overboard with Warmachine/Hordes, Infinity, Flames of War, Blood Bowl, and recently Star Wars: X-Wing.   Yes, I have a problem, and according to my therapist, the first part of recovery is admitting you have a problem (now I just have to move on to the part of the therapy where I want to be "fixed").

You are probably asking, why did we settle on the name "Team Banzai" for our gaming group?  Contrary to popular belief (at least what all the young 'uns at Adepticon keep believing), we are not a community of unsuccessful kamikaze pilots.  Nope, for those of you who lived through the 1980s, and are an avid sci-fi movie fan, you might be aware of the movie "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension".   It is by far, the best movie ever created.  I mean, you can't argue with the quality of a movie starring Peter Weller, Ellen Barkin, Christopher Lloyd, John Lithgow, and Jeff Goldbloom.   And the plot/script you ask, well... yeah, it has one!!!  From what I have heard, the only reason the movie wasn't nominate for an Academy Award when it came out back in 1984 was because the Academy of Motion Pictures was afraid it would sweep all of the awards.   Actually, in all reality, it is a very wacky, campy weird movie, but has a number of memorable lines and, for some odd reason, actually received a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why did we decide to take on the name "Team Banzai" and style ourselves after a "B" 1980s movie?  I'm not exactly sure.   I believed it had to do with a dare.  In all honesty I think it has more to do with the fact that one of our founding members absolutely hated the movie, seems to have an exaggerated allergic reaction to the movie, so obviously we had no choice what-so-ever other than to name the group "Team Banzai" just to piss him off.

What can you expect in the future?  The intention here is to give an account of our take on a number of table top miniature wargames, post some battle reports, convention reports (we regularly attend Adepticon, and work the NOVA Open), projects we are working on, and tips and tricks we have picked up regarding painting and modeling.   Also, we are looking to document the triumphs and failures (primarily failures, we seem to lose most of our tournament games) of Team Banzai as we explore the tabletop wargaming world.

As we go, let us know what you are interested in and how we can make this site more interesting for you.  I mean, some of the members of Team Banzai care about what others think.  Not me, mind you, but some of us care.   Personally, I like to make fun of the Team Banzai members who seem to care.  Their tears are like sweet cupcakes and sunshine.  

I've been ionized, but I'm okay now.