What I'm Working on

5 green creatures.

6 pieces of area terrain. (Marsh and rough.)

A checkerboard.

Dire Mouse

Dire mice are mammals, large mouse-like creatures, about 2 m long, not including the tail. They live underneath human houses, in dungeons and barns, usually in small groups, and are vey clever finding stored food. They are able to use tools, like keys. Dire mice squeak when annoyed, scared or in pain. They also cummunicate by emitting scents. They carry diseases, like rabies and the plague. Dire Mice are hunted by great eagles, displacer beasts and humans. When attacked they will try to get away or defend themselves using their sharp teeth. 

Stats for Gurps:

ST: 12   DX: 13   IQ: 8   HT: 13

HP: 12   Will: 10   Per: 12   FP: 13

Speed: 6.5   Move: 6

Dodge: 9   Parry: 10   DR: 1

SM: 0

Bite (15): 1d-2 cutting

Traits: Acute Hearing 5; Bad Smell; Bestial; Curious; Night Vision 5; Semi-Upright.

Skills: Brawling-15; Lockpicking-12; Stealth-15.

Dungeon for Lina and Hendrik / Level 1

I was in Dortmund for three weeks, tidying up my parents' house. One night I wrote a dungeon adventure for Lina (5) and Hendrik (3), my two older kids. (Joaquín is too small to play dungeon adventures, I guess. He just turned one.)

Before I left, I asked them what characters they want to play. Lina wants to play princess Blume, a girl with magical abilities who knows three spells: Fire, Lullaby and Glitter. (I suppose glitter is helpful if you are in a dungeon and forgot your torch.) Hendrik wants to play prince Marmelade, equipped with bow and arrows. They are the children of the king and queen of the island Kalimera.

The adventure starts in the royal kitchen. The cook needs olives to make a greek salad but doesn't dare to go into the cellar where they are stored. He is afraid of mice. (Musophobia.) He already sent the kitchen boy but the kitchen boy didn't return. So now he asks princess Blume and prince Marmelade, our two brave heroes, to fetch some olives for him. They are always up for an adventure and go down the stairs.

1 At the bottom of the stairs, they encounter a cat. The cat asks: "Which animal walks on 4 legs in the morning, on 2 legs at noon and on 3 legs at night?" The cat will follow the heroes around. It likes to be stroked.

2 A room full of stuff. Chests and baskets. Plates and pots. Potsheds. An old fisher net. A flute. A lyre, missing a string or two. A large shield covered with dust. A rolled up carpet.

3 A large room used to store white and red wine in amphorae. Alex, the kitchen boy, lies on the floor and sleeps. He snores in a scary way. He sounds like a giant insect. If princess Blume and prince Marmelade manage to wake him up, he will notice that he lost the keys, the cook gave him, and panic.

4 Another storage room, measuring 3m x 3m. One door is open, the other locked. More chests and baskets filled with stuff. If the prince and princess take a closer look, they will notice that there are traces of animals everywhere. The room seems to be the dormitory of large rodents.

5 The door to this room is locked. Looking through the keyhole, prince Marmelade and princess Blume can see 5 giant olives on legs, wearing red sneakers, and a pickled red pepper and a couple of giant tomatoes, also on legs, also wearing sneakers. As soon as the door is opened, the vegetables will try to get out and run away.

6 Another locked door, another 3m x 3m room. (I like 3m x 3m rooms, don't know why.) There is an opening in the floor, leading to level 2 of the dungeon with a ladder. A foul smell comes from down there.

7 This room is used to store cereals. It has 3 doors. The door to the west is open, the other doors are locked. Two very large mouse-like creatures are bend over a sack eating wheat. They are about 2 meters long and fat. They have grey fur and pink little hands, much like human beings. Taken by surprise, one of them picks up the missing keychain from the floor and runs for the door to the north to open it. (The creature stole it from the kitchen boy while he was sleeping.) The other dire mouse grabs a broom to defend itself. The creatures will try to escape to room 6 and go down to the second level of the dungeon, taking the keys with them.   

8 I think, Lina and Hendrik will like this room, especially if I use props. There is a beautiful little box on the floor, filled with cookies in the form of islands. On one cookie, it says "The Karubi Islands", on another: "You need to pass the pillars of Hercules, sail to the west and south for many days, fight the mighty sea scorpion, go on for 7 more days and if Neptun favours you, you will find the Karubi Islands."

Plague Marines versus Space Marines / 40K Battle Report / 5th Edition / 1000 points

The Karubi Islands are a group of tropical islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They are considered to be a micro-continent. They are mostly covered with dense rainforest, habitat of many poisonous animals.

Four islands have been discovered by elven seafarers so far: Nitz Oxib Tsaq, Matzatit Binel Ja, Wazimu and Dox Dox.

I finally decided to get a copy of the current edition of the 40K rules and give them a try. So a month ago we had a farewell game to the 5th edition. (If we don't like the new edition, we will continue playing with the 5th edition, of course.)

I played Plague Marines

Chaos Lord (HQ / 150 points)

mark of nurgle, plaguebringer

9 Nurgle Plague Marines (Troops / 257 points)

2 meltaguns

plague champion with power weapon

Chaos Rhino (45 points)

twin-linked bolter, dozer blade

11 Nurgle Plague Marines (Troops / 323 points)

2 plasma guns

plague champion with power fist

3 Obliterators (Heavy Support / 225 points)

Krüger, my opponent, played Space Marines:

Captain (HQ / 130 points)

boltgun, relic blade

10 Space Marines (Troops / 195 points)

1 meltagun, 1 plasma cannon

sergeant with power weapon

Razorback (75 points)

twin-linked lascannon

10 Space Marines (Troops / 195 points)

1 flamer, 1 missile launcher

sergeant with power fist

Drop Pod (35 points)

5 Terminators (Elite / 230 points)

1 assault cannon

sergeant with power sword

1 Dreadnought (Elite / 105 points)

Drop Pod (35 points)

We have used these two lists in many games.

We diced for mission and deployment and got capture and control and dawn of war. I won the initiative and placed 11 plague marines next to the objective on my right side, a mining rig used for the extraction of green Aluthol crystals. The unit included a champion with a power fist and two plasma guns. Krüger had placed his objective all the way on his right side, a rocket which had crashed head down into the jungle. It was my intention to grab this objective with my chaos lord and a unit of 9 plague marines in a rhino. Krüger put 5 space marines next to the rocket to defend it and placed a razorback on his left side to attack the plague marines next to the mining rig.

Turn 1:

My rhino moved forward and shot down a space marine with its pintle-mounted twin-linked bolter.

Krüger decided to concentrate his troops on his right side. First a unit of 5 terminators entered on his table edge. Then a large drop pod landed close to my rhino and a dreadnought disembarked. It shot at my rhino and immobilised it.

Turn 2:

Krüger's dreadnought got stunned as the result of two meltagun shots. I killed two more space marines with the bolters on top of my rhino, causing their unit to flee off the table. (I quite like pintle-mounted twin-linked bolters.) On my right side I shot at Krüger's razorback with 2 plasma guns. I lost a plague marine because a plasma gun got hot. Krüger lost his razorback. Four space marines, a sergeant and the captain had to leave the burning vehicle. That went well.

Krüger's second drop pod landed close to my mining rig. Another unit of 9 space marines and a sergeant disembarked. Now 13 space marines, 2 sergeants and the captain shot at the plague marines defending the mining rig. Only one plague marine was killed. (I like the special rules Mark of Nurgle and Feel no Pain.) In close combat the plague champion killed Krüger's captain with his power fist. His unit fled.

Turn 3:

My obliterators arrived and fired 3 plasma cannons at Krüger's large tactical squad, killing 9 space marines. Only the sergeant survived. (I like plasma cannons.) I shot at his other unit of space marines with my plague marines. Same thing. Only a sergeant survived. Krüger's two sergeants are the heroes of this shooting phase, I think. They got into close combat with my plague marines and were killed, though. Sorry, guys!

At this point Krüger didn't have any standard units left. Thus he wasn't able to win the game anymore.

On the other side, next to the rocket, Krüger was luckier. First his dreadnought and his terminators shot down a plague marine. Then they killed 3 plague marines and my chaos lord in close combat.

Turn 4:

I lost the unit next to the rocket and Krüger started to run for the mining rig with his dreadnought and his terminators.

Turn 5:

I fired 3 lascannons and a plasma gun at Krüger's dreadnought, destroying his feared close combat weapon.

The terminators attacked my obliterators, while the dreadnought continued to run for the mining rig. I started to get nervous.

Turn 6:

Krüger lost his terminators in close combat. The dreadnought wasn't able to reach the mining rig. The game ended. I won. On my side, 2 obliterators survived and 8 plague marines, including a champion. On Krüger's side, 2 drop pods and a dreadnought. (Ok. Maybe that thing is the real hero of the game.)

It was another relaxed game, lots of fun and undecided till the end. I think I will miss the 5th edition.

The Karubi Islands

Evidence of an ancient culture, which collapsed more than 500 years ago, is scattered throughout the jungle. Several ruins of pyramids and other religious buildings with depictions of frog-like beings, double-headed snakes and krakens have been discovered.

About 100 years ago, elves migrated to Nitz Oxib Tsaq and started to populate the island. The elven population is organized into city states. Three major city states are currently fighting for political dominance.

Nitz Oxib Tsaq is mostly deforested by now, ancient temples have been razed and the indigenous human population has been driven away, enslaved or killed.

Not much is known about Matzatit Binel Ja ("pineapple beck"). There are rumours of large green creatures lurking in the jungle, deadly hunters and servants of old nameless gods.

Six hundred years ago, a large elven fleet was lost in the Atlantic Ocean on its way to India. The survivors of this expedition have recently been found on Wazimu and Dox Dox. They have been cut off from civilization for too long. Savage and hostile, they worship primitive gods and have formed alliances with the horrible creatures native to the Karubi Islands.

In the north-east of Dox Dox, several Orc and Goblin tribes are said to have their territory. It's not known if these tribes are allies or enemies. It is known however, that they are at war with the elves.

If you go to the Karubi Islands, which is not recommended, take a surfboard, try to avoid Elves and Orcs and don't get lost in the jungle.

Hamilax Eshmunazar Abimilki's Labyrinth

In May Krüger and I met several times in an Italian street restaurant, drank white wine and wrote a simple Gurps adventure for Sven, Bettina and Andi. Most of us hadn't played roleplaying games in a long time. For Bettina it was even the first time.

The adventure took place on the Greek island Kalimera, in the land house of the rich merchant Hamilax Eshmunazar Abimilki and in his labyrinth. Sven played the part of Stavros, a tough greek hoplite, veteran of the Persian wars. Andi's character was Sephalos, a runaway slave, claiming to be a tough Greek hoplite. Bettina was Viviane, an Amazon warrior, equipped with knife and bow.

So here it goes: They are led into the house by Ploriax, a dwarf wearing a bull's mask. They meet Abimilki. He  shows them around, talking incessantly. He stops in front of a large empty cage. Abimilki wants them to go to another island, see a merchant, buy a very valuable, rare item and bring it back undamaged. He offers a lot of gold if they succeed. The three adventurers agree. Abimilki wants to test them first. Stavros protest but gives in.

They are led into the garden by the dwarf, to the entrance of a labyrinth. He takes off his mask and tells them that Abimilki is an obsessive collector of strange creatures. Stavros, Sephalos and Viviane enter the labyrinth. A heavy door closes behind them. The walls of the labyrinth are about 3 meters high. They start to move forward. At different places there are numbers written on the walls, numerical series like 2 / 4 / 7 / 11 / 16 or 3 / 7 / 2 / 8 / 1 or 2 / 9 / 30 / 93 / 282.

From now on, I'm going to give some options the players had, instead of writing a session report.

1: Above their heads, they see a net with 3 large spiders. They are poisonous but will try to run away when attacked.

2: More spiders.

3: A room, 3m x 3m. A little green body lies on the floor, half eaten and already starting to rot. It's covered by cloth. Something is moving underneath it. A classical D&D monster. A Carrion Crawler.

4: The adventurers are attacked by a goblin with a morning star. He is going berserk and probably ends up hurting himself before he reaches anybody. He might even knock himself unconscious. A couple of meters behind him, more goblins with long ears and sharp teeth are hiding behind a large shield. They shout something in broken Greek. "Please don't attack! He is drugged."  If attacked, the goblins throw sticks.  In close combat they fight with large knives and bite. If the adventurers want to talk, a goblin with an oversized helmet steps forward, the goblin king. He gives orders to grab the fanatic with the morning star and bind him. Then he tells the adventurers how his group was captured by elven slavers from Nitz Oxib Tzaq, sold to Abimilki and put in the labyrinth. In great detail he describes the beautiful Karubi Islands where they are from and how sad their life is now. He is very clever and tries to barter a couple of useless marbles for some of the equipment the adventurers carry. He is especially interested in shiny weapons. It is likely that the adventurers will give in. Before wishing them good luck, the goblin king talks about mushrooms which can be found in the labyrinth, red mushrooms that make the eater go berserk, blue mushrooms that cause deafness.

5: A room, 3m x 3m. A long-nosed monkey sits on the floor in the middle of a colony of red mushrooms, eating. He attacks immediately.

6-9: The provisional home of the goblin tribe. A couple of chests which serve as tables, chairs, closets and beds. The floor is covered with straw and bones of rats and other small animals.

10: A room with a well in the middle. Lilies cover the dark water. The air is damp. After a while a nymph appears. She is chained to the bottom of the well. She will talk to the adventurers, try to seduce them, negotiate, giving pieces of information about the other inhabitants of the labyrinth and its construction. She can't be entirely trusted. She is bright and charming. She might be helpful. The only thing she really wants is to be freed from the chain. If attacked she will withdraw to the water, taking somebody with her if she can. (Not that she needs company. She likes the taste of human flesh.) 

11: The adventurers meet a large friendly creature, a brain golem. The golem was created to invent numerical series. The creator of the golem got bored and sold him to Abimilki. Unfortunately Abimilki has no interest in numbers. Now the golem is looking for a new master. If the adventurers show enough interest, they gain a very helpful servant.

12: The brain golem's room. There are numbers written all over the walls: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97 ...

13: Now this is strange. The air is filled with smoke. Chests are piled up next to the walls. Rats are squeaking from within. Green and pink liquids are boiling in kettles. It's some kind of lab. A goblin lies on the table, surrounded by 3 man-sized tentacles. They try to transform him into a tentacle which is probably as difficult as turning a stone into gold. The goblin is still alive and can be rescued.

14: Two hyenas. On their way through the labyrinth the adventurers have probably already heard them giggling eerily several times. If the adventurers had gotten into a fight with the goblins, the hyenas might have appeared to fetch some corpses.

15: Another 3m x 3m room. Blue mushrooms grow on the floor. If you eat some, you turn deaf temporarily, if you eat a lot, forever. The golem, the nymph or the rescued goblin might advice to eat the mushrooms as an antidote to sonic attacks.

16: A 5m x 5m room with a large hole in the middle, 3 m wide and at least 10 m deep. Looking around, the adventurers notice that little channels lead to the hole from other parts of the labyrinth. They are filled with the blood of the creatures that were slain by them. A large demon crawls out of the hole, a mixture between an octopus and a cock. You can see pictures of it here. The more blood the adventurers have shed before, the stronger he is. He attacks with tentacles, claws and a long beak. Every ten seconds he lets out a horrible scream which causes the adventurers to attack each other, unless they have a strong will or are deaf.

Chaos Space Marines and Orks versus Dark Angels

"Wood Elves vs. Orcs & Goblins" is my most popular blog post so far. I hope you like this title as well.

We had another 1500 point 40K game on Tuesday night. Krüger (Orks) and I (CSM) played against Jörg (Dark Angels). It's August 2013 and we still use the 5th edition, I guess you could call this Oldhammer 40K.

I played a chaos lord with a daemon weapon and a unit of 9 plague marines with 2 meltaguns in a rhino, 3 obliterators and a greater daemon.

Krüger brought a warboss, 20 ork boys, 3 killa kans and 10 kommandos.

Jörg started to play 40K half a year ago. He already has 2000 points of Dark Angels. He brought a landraider, 3 units of terminators and 2 tactical squads.

The scenario was capture and control + dawn of war. We placed our objective behind a long fortified wall. Jörg put his objective inside the ruins of a mining rig. Krüger's plan was to defend our objective with his ork boys, my plan was to grab the other objective with a unit of plague marines.

After I took the first picture of the game, the batteries of my camera ran out. Grrrrrr!!!

In turn one, Jörg got so excited that he made a roll with his dice cup on top of my rhino. Fortunately the model wasn't damaged.

In turn two, my chaos champion was transformed into a greater daemon and my plague marines destroyed a unit of Dark Angels standing next to the objective in the mining rig. Jörg already wanted to give up, but then his terminators arrived and shot down 16 ork boys. Now Krüger got nervous.

In turn three, Jörg talked about "quadcopters" and "mini drohnen". No clue what he was talking about. My obliterators arrived via deep strike and blasted away 3 terminators with their plasma cannon. The rest of Jörg's terminators attacked the ork boys, killing them all, including the big boss. A killa kan exploded.

In turn four, Krüger's death kopters arrived and shot down Belial (whatever that is). Jörg also lost all 3 terminator units and his second tactical squad. We lost the chaos lord (vengeance!!!) and another killa bot.

In turn five, the greater daemon destroyed Jörg's landraider, his last model on the battlefield. A single plague marine survived standing next to the objective on Jörg's side. We won. I think it was close. The game was exciting until the end.

The problem is, Jörg always buys more terminators after loosing a game and his army already looks quite scary the way it is. How many terminators and landraiders are you allowed to field anyway?

Ancient Greek Civilians

I'm currently looking for 28mm Ancient Greek civilians.

I came across Eureka's Civilians and Vignettes range which looks great, I think.

Here are some examples:

Middle Eastern Civilians.

Indian Yogi.

Male Indian Civilian Set.

Female Indian Civilian Set.

Indian Children Set.

So I submitted a request to Eureka's 100 club to produce Ancient Greek civilians.

Anybody interested?

My favourite 363 Links

I just added a collection of 363 links to my blog. You will find it on the right side under the title "Herr Zinnlings Links". These are my favourite hobby related sites. I will add more in the future, while others will disappear. (Like Major General Tremorden Rederring's excellent Colonial-era Wargames Page which is only available through the Wayback Machine at the moment.)

I used categories like Games, 28mm and Terrain to group the links. Sometimes a website could have been listed under different categories. To not complicate my life, I just placed it under one category, the one that interests me most.

I hope you find this collection useful.

Dwarves and Greeks versus Orks and Draconians / HotT Battle Report

Last Saturday I got together with Sven, Andi and Krüger to play HOTT. Andi actually travelled 190 km for this and Sven even 510 km.

We used single based miniatures on large bases with an 80 mm frontage. Andi and I played as a team. Krüger and Sven were our opponents.

Andi played a dwarf army, made up of the following elements: Blade General (C-in-C), 6 Blades, 4 Spears, 1 Behemoth (2 little plastic Kinder Surprise trolls which look kind of cool), 1 Airboat, 1 Artillery.

I played 8 Shooters (Greek slingers).

Krüger played an Ork army: Warband General (C-in-C), 5 Warbands, 2 Knights, 1 Behemoth, 1 Hero.

Sven brought a Dragonlance army: Hero General (Sivak Draconian), 1 God (Takhisis), 4 Blades (Baaz Draconians), 2 Flyers (Kapak Draconians), 4 Hordes (Hobgoblins).

I don't know much about Dragonlance but Andi and Krüger got quite excited about this. Probably because they have read all the Dragonlance books.

Andi and I were the defenders and placed the terrain: a Mayan Temple and some woods.

Andi deployed his army in the centre. I placed 4 Shooters on the left flank and 4 Shooters on the right flank.

Krüger deployed his Hero, Behemoth and 2 Knights in the centre, opposite to Andi's army, and his Warbands opposite to our left flank. Sven placed his whole army opposite to our right flank. Their plan was to destroy our flanks quickly, I guess.

Andi's Airboat was a bit too daring and got killed by the Ork Hero at the beginning of the game.

The God Takhisis appeared early on and left in Sven's next bound. This is the only element he lost during the game.

My Greek slingers were hard to kill. They were able to push back Sven's Blades several times and even killed a couple of Warbands on the other flank, while Andi's army slowly destroyed the centre of the Draconian + Ork alliance. Apart from the Airboat, we lost 5 Shooters and 1 Blade. When Andi's Behemoth killed Krüger's Ork Hero after 2.5 hours, we won the game.

It was the first HOTT team game I have played. I like team games. It was lots of fun. I especially enjoyed the rules for demoralized commands.

Bettina, Sven's girlfriend, was so kind to take pictures of the game.

Imaginary Ancient Islands

I like the concept of imagi-nations which is popular among wargamers at the moment. There is a fascinating blog network called Emperor vs Elector which connects different blogs about imagi-nations and there is even a wargame written especially for gentlemen who want to field horse and musket armies of their imaginary nations against each other: Maurice by Sam Mustafa. All of this is very inspiring. 

I have been talking a lot with my cousin and Krüger about how we can introduce narrative elements to our tabletop battles. First of all we want to start using maps in our games. Do you know Cartographers' Guild, a forum dedicated to making maps of fictional places?

I started to collect 28mm ancient Greeks about a year ago, so I made this island. I don't know much about it yet. Sven suggested the name Kalimera which sounds good. Our hack and slash GURPS game next Saturday will take place on the island Kalimera which reminds me that I need to buy a bottle of Ouzo for my friends and some olives.

Since this post talks a lot about sources of inspiration, I would like to share a couple of pictures which fascinate me. I found them on Steve Dean's forum.

This samnite was sculpted by Kev White, one of my favourite sculptors. It's a portrait of Duff who commissioned the miniature and painted it.

This is a scene from RuneQuest. The samnite has a large helmet now which makes him a Rune Lord. The Walktapus was sculpted by Snuurg for Fenris Games. Both miniatures were painted by the very talented Duff.

Makes me want to get some old RuneQuest books. Ancient Greece + Beastmen + Cthulhu + Ducks sounds cool.

Yamas!

Dungeon Number One

Back in 1984, I game mastered my first D&D adventure. I drew a dungeon and invited my cousin Sven and his friend Paul. They played a wizard and a thief. They were six years old. We didn't have any idea how roleplaying games work.

The game was over in half an hour.

This is the dungeon:

Room 1:

The room measures 5m x 4m. Two pirates sit around a table, gambling and drinking rum. A third pirate lies on the floor and sleeps. Why did you enter their house anyway?

A door leads to room 2.

Room 2:

A bucket full of crabs. Some old clothes are scattered on the floor. A secret door (S) leads to room 3.

Room 3:

3m x 2m. There is a large cupboard filled with bottles, clothes, cured meat, sabres, helmets and a chest. The chest contains 10 pesos de ocho and a doll made out of wood and cloth. (Don't take it! Its evil voodoo magic will get you into lots of trouble.)

I think Sven and Paul didn't make it to room 2. It's possible that the pirates were goblins and that room 3 didn't exist. Hey, all of this happened thirty years ago!

Sven got heavily into role playing and tabletop games as a teenager. It might be my fault. Last thing I heard about Paul is that he became a drug dealer.

Heavy Metal

Saturday night we had a 1500 point Warhammer 40K team game with Patrick (Space Wolves) and Jörg (Dark Angels) on one side and Krüger (Orks) and me (Chaos Space Marines) on the other.

Patrick actually introduced Krüger and me to 40K many years ago. Unfortunately we don't play with him that much any more. He is an amazing painter and always emphasizes the storytelling aspect of the hobby which is great.

We expected Jörg to bring a landraider and a lot of terminators. He didn't.

I made a 790 point army list with the following units: a chaos lord with a daemon weapon and a unit of 9 plague marines with 2 meltaguns in a rhino, 3 obliterators and a greater daemon. (We still use the 5th edition, although I start hearing complaints about it. Sorry, guys.)

Like last time we played, the scenario turned out to be annihilation + pitched battle.

I didn't play well, to be honest. I put my troops all the way on our left flank and they almost didn't make it into play. I nevertheless managed to destroy 2 rhinos and one of Jörg's units, including his HQ.

Krüger lost 2 deffkoptas at the start of the game. His ork boys moved very slowly through a large forest while his killa kans were shot to pieces one by one. Ennervating. I think his kommandos only survived one turn. They got surrounded by Patrick's Space Wolves and were quickly shot down.

Patrick and Jörg opted for a defensive strategy, avoiding close combat and shooting volleys of hunter-killer missiles at us.

Krüger and I made a lot of mistakes, but we won in the end (6 to 5). I don't know why. I guess a bit of luck helps when you play 40K.

Jörg, my neighbour, is a heavy metal fan. He likes to bang his dice cup hard on the table. While Krüger was taking a cigarette break on the balcony, Jörg told us the story about how he lost a shoe at a concert in Wacken, the biggest heavy metal festival of the world. To make him feel at home I put on "Right Next Door To Hell" by Guns N' Roses. (Ok. That's not heavy metal, but it's the closest thing to heavy metal I have.)

You can find a battle report with lots of pictures on Krüger's blog.

Wazimu

When I lived in Dortmund, I used to play a lot with Sven, Andi, Krüger and Marjorie. We considered ourselves a gaming club and called us Wazimu, which is short for Wambeler Zinnfigurenmuseum.

Here you can see us playing "Pirates!" by Flagship Games, a game I can highly recommend by the way.

Marjorie and I got married and moved to Berlin. Krüger also lives in Berlin. I meet him about once a week.

I don't see Sven and Andi that much anymore, so they decided to come over to Berlin for a weekend in May. We want to play 40K, HOTT and Gurps. I'm really looking forward to this.