Pokemon 5e

My kids (Boys 4 and 6) wanted to give  Pokemon DnD a go. Thanks to the podcast You Meet in a Tavern, who did a few episodes using these rules. In fact I believe the DM for this DnD playthrough podcast wrote or helped write the Pokemon version of the DnD rules. With the rules was also a one shot to get people started called Professors Oaks Package.

Now with the age of the kids I ignored a few rules and let them re roll a few rolls to keep them interested.
My wife rolled up a character and my 2 boys made their characters.
My wife was a pokemon trainer called Starlight, my eldest made up a lad called Dennis (Don't ask he's obsessed with that name) and my youngest boy made a trainer called Blossum.
None of them had starting pokemon as that bit was written into the one shot I was using but I did let them choose what they would get as that's what they wanted.

My eldest chose a Pikachu, my youngest chose a Charmander and my wife chose a Squirtle. I won't go through the adventure as I don't want to ruin the one shot for anyone wanting to try it. The group went off to deliver a package for Professor Oak but also on their way try and catch some pokemon!
My wife was very happy to catch a Psyduck and a sand screw. My sons caught a bellsprout, a Zigazoon, Slakoth, Vulpix, Growlithe, Ekans and a Sentrat.
The boys and wife seemed to enjoy it and want me to write a new adventure for them so I'll have to start work on that.
Have a good day folks!

Across the Dead Earth Factions #1 Here is one of my gangs for the game Across the Dead Earth. Now you would think of start this with pics of the gang is played my first game with (78th Smethwick Irregulars) however I'm not happy with the paint scheme so they've been striped and awaiting a new coat of paint. 'the Fighting Spanner's' The fighting spanner's are a forward expeditionary squad of the engineers guild. The engineers guild value knowledge and technology so they send out the squads to scout and scour the wastes for either. The 'Spanners' set out from the settlement called the Rag Market in what used to be Birmingham after reports of the State moving into the ruins of Smethwick. The engineers guild does not want the state to find any tech or to get a foothold in the area.

Rufus is the leader of the squad, born and raised in the rag market. He is known for always having a plan and tinkering with all manner of hand held tech

Jade is the squads heavy back up. Her motto is "Any problem can be solved with explosives"

Sparks is the squads medic, he sees medicine as just another form of engineering though he always keeps his shotgun handy!

Lara is an angry lady, many people on the guild have tried to teach her but if things don't work they get broke! So she was recommended to the expeditionary squads where she thrives with bat and shotgun.

Zero started out as a hunter in the wilds of Canon hill park until he was hired by the guild as a guard. After single handedly rescuing Rufus from ten Solus he was recruited into the 'Fighting Spanners" That's the Fighting Spanners. Keep an eye out for the next gang Mart

Birthday Gifts!

It was my birthday recently so I was lucky enough to get a few awesome presents.

From my awesome wife and kids I got Blood bowl!!!! My folks got me the Inaugural Almanac so I can do league stuff and have a few new teams. The wife has agreed to try this game and she wants Wood Elves!
The awesome Alex Does Hobby (Go visit his site here!)  bought me some more barbarians to crush his Orcs and Goblins Mwha ha ha ha ha ha ha........ Excuse me right yeah he got me a pack of hunters and berserkers. So gone out the window is my army list as my army has expanded more (Let's be honest we knew that would happen right?) than I had planned but that just means bigger battles and being 15mm not so much space being taken up.

Not going to do a box opening of Blood Bowl as its been out ages but going to put some team pics up as they are awesome models. Bigger than I thought but very nice.

Human Game Balls, turn trackers and Coins. 

Human Team 

Orc  Game Balls, turn trackers and Coins.

Orc Team

Throw range ruler and scatter templates 

I really like the bases of the players come with a little hole in the front. Some of the balls have a little peg on which clips onto the bases. Really nice little touch! Now just need the rain to go away so I can prime and get painting!!!!

Operation Last Train WW2

Someone in The Operation Last Train Facebook group mentioned doing a WW2 version. I liked this idea mainly as I have plenty of WW2 British soldiers and some 28mm zombies. So I wrote some basic fluff to flesh out a story. Essentially the Allies reached the German borders only to be assaulted by hordes of zombies. No one knows where they came from but even thye Wehrmacht are fighting alongside the Allies in a retreat mack to the coast.


"I need more ships. There are thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands here and more at the Calais...... OK..... Just get them" Admiral Walker put the phone down.
"Jenkins!  Get me the latest updates please"
A brown haired sailor stepped into the room,
"Yes sir. Oh sir a Captain Daniels is here to see you. He says its urgent and no I don't know how he got past the guards and other officers" Jenkins quickly stepped out, a short stocky Para Troop officer stepped in and saluted.
"What do you want Captain? We are a bit busy if you hadn't noticed. I've already done Dunkirk once and now we are doing it a-bloody-gain! Except now we are trying to get everyone out and away from those spawns of hell. We are abandoning mainland Europe son. Its lost to those creatures what in the world could you want from me right now? " Admiral Walker rubbed his forehead, when was the last time he slept. A long time ago it felt,
"Sir, we've been fighting the zombies all the way back from the German borders. I've abandoned to many towns with people still there." Captain Daniels said,
"I understand that son but we cannot save everyone. The Allies... hell we even have the Wehrmacht fighting with us! We are all heading back to the coast and we are trying to get as many people  out as possible. I cannot make sure every village or farm is empty before we move back, that's how we lost Bradley and Patton."
" I know sir I wouldn't ask for the whole army to stop but what about one unit in fast vehicles or a C-47 if there is somewhere to land. Locating anyone still alive and bringing them out. Those people still living must be in a nightmare. The least we can do is give them hope sir? " Captain Daniels replied,
The Admiral lent back in his chair and looked in deep thought. He seemed to snap out of it and lent forward.
“What makes you think there are still people out there? The enemy does not tend to leave living creatures."
Captain Daniels stepped forward slightly and spoke,
" Sir humans always find a way to survive, we have done since the dawn of time. They could be holed up in basements or there could be cut off units left behind. We should give them a chance"
The Admiral scratched his chin,
"I can't order soldiers back out there. They will have to be volunteers  including the vehicle crews. If a crew volunteers there vehicle is yours and if you find a C-47 crew crazy enough I'll get you a plane. 100 men no more you hear.  I don't know how much longer we will be here probably a month maybe 2. That's all you get. As soon as we leave these shores the air forces are going to fire bomb everything. Go on you are going to be busy son"


For most of the games I will use a Halftrack instead of a dropship.  Just gotta make a roster up for this game now!

Operation Last Train Volunteers

I got my 15mm Sci fi soldiers through the mail for my volunteers in Operation Last Train Home. I chose some troops that looked like they had a space trooper feel to them. I ordered 8 Riflemen, 4 rocket Launcher guys and 4 laser cannon guys.

I also ordered off ebay some toy Halloween spiders to represent my bugs.

I based the troops individually on pennies (Man that was a task to find 16 pennies!) and I think the spiders look a good size against the soldiers.
Next up was undercoating and painting.

All undercoated (also you will notice more barbarians 😊) 

Then painted in simple colours. I mixed the colours up as they are soldiers from many different planets all thrown together.
Now to fill in a roster. The fluff is you are allowed 100 soldiers and once one dies he/she is out (Obviously resuing models). Below is the start of my roster.

Some names maybe familiar to you as they are taken from the people that like my Facebook page! If you want to be a volunteer and save people from the big hordes drop a comment and I'll add you to the roster then just keep an eye out for your exploits.

Now I need to source some survivors for them to rescue.

Operation Last Train Home Project

Recently I discovered a game called Operation Last Train Home (Check it out here). Its a solo game set in a u inverse where humans and bugs are at war and we are losing. The writer has written a small bit of fluff to set the scene. A planet has been abandoned by earth forces and will have its atmosphere destroyed soon. A ships captain requests permission to try and rescue any survivors using drop ships (Time for a spaceship on the board).
The operation is approved but volunteers only.  The beauty of this game is the writer has put the rules out there for free but has asked if you do please donate  £3 / $5 to Save the Children.  This is a great idea and when I donated, he had raised over £1000 so far!!
The rules are super simple and it seems the game plays really quickly. Another nice feature is your volunteers can die and don't come back forever immortalised on your roll of honour.
I am going to attempt this game in 15mm for space saving sake. I've ordered some 15mm space troopers for my volunteers.

For the bugs I am going to look at using Halloween Spiders. Someone else had used this idea in the Face book group for the game and it looked really good. 

People have also used this rule set for a zombie version. I thought I would look at this in 28mm set in WW2 as I have plenty of WW2 troops and 28mm zombies. Instead of a drop ship I would use a Half track. 

If you like the look of it. Donate some. Money and give it a go! 

School Holiday Tanks Battle

During the holidays my 6 year old challenged me to another game of Tanks Modern Age. So we broke out the Terrain and Tanks for a  game.

Our platoons were all our models, again I didn't use upgrades or crew as we would never remember to use them.

British Platoon (Lynx, 2x Chieftains and a Scorpion) 

Russian Platoon (3 x T-64s and a T-72)

 I'm m trying a new app on the game pictures so we shall see how it goes. I thibk I may just use it on the odd picture from now on  but this is a trial run.

Great game though soon we will have to start using the upgrades and stricter on the rules as he keeps beating me 😂