David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 28 March 2013

Action Cards for New Paddock City

I am managing quite a few displacement activities here in GHQ as an antidote to painting the six armoured Samurai I was 'gifted' by Phil. Its not that I'm ungrateful for his kindness, nor is it the case that I don't want to paint them; its just that they are rather more complex than all the other figures I have completed for the game and I find it dispiritingly slow and complex, allied to which I'm making too many eyesight related errors! I will finish them: I have completed the first pair; have all the basic colours on the second pair of the six and have done the flesh areas on the third pair. But, I still find it hard to sit down at my desk and get on with them!
So, today's displacement activity was making a set of 'Action Cards' for our Western Gunfight games set in and around my new town of Battleflag MDF buildings ~ which have featured in several earlier posts as I'm confident you will have seen. We are using a home improved version of Astounding Tales at present, so I know I'll need to make reference sheets too for the main characters to ease play along in future...
I was inspired to make these by the response to my efforts on the set for Funsen, as well as by a set shown of the LAF Forum Boards for the Rules with No Name. Again I trawled the net for suitable period photographs to use on the text side, mainly to enhance the look of the game as the cards are turned over. The most difficult images to find were for the gravedigger, OT ~ a long story there ~ and for the armed Preacher. In the end I opted for a C19th English picture for the former and of a reenactor for the latter, but otherwise they are all C19th photos from the Old West. For the face of the cards I found a rather nice image of a shoot out, very apt for our games, and a free font called El Dorado! They are nothing special in the end, but they will help the game look better and move along smoothly. As Phil says, "They will do!"
Now, will I get on with those Samurai next, or shall I finish grassing and tufting the rebased War of 1812 collection? No contest really...
 




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