Carnevale, Pirates & Wound Tokens

I've finished my Carnevale starter. The minis are nice and characterful even if the resin is meh. It does atmosphere so well.

In my Venice, there are also undead pirates seeking a cursed map and Royal Navy shore parties chasing them.

Also, just plain pirates. Pirates, like dinosaurs, robots and ninjas, are automatically cool and always enhance any game you add them to.

Since I'm out of LotR minis to paint, I may as well record my 'other' column. Including 31 today and 46 the other day, I'm making brisk inroads into my pile of shame.  I think I only have 8 pirates to go and I can order more if I want... (The 30 or so I did for my son don't count against my own pile unfortunately)

Since I've done my Carnevale project, I can also start a new project (that's another self imposed rule - no new games/projects til an existing one is finished). I keep eyeing off BFG 3D prints but I kinda feel I should have ALL my Dropfleet ships done first as it's kinda the same genre....  

I'm also plan to retest Blood Red Skies and if it is a success I'm buying some $2 metal 1:300 planes (vs Warlord's 6 for $60 plastics).

Also, since I've been talking a bit about Hitpoints in my last few game reviews, I thought I'd show how I represent a 'wound' - a clear plastic token with a bit of red paint on it. You can do a dozen in 30 seconds and the counters are the sort you buy a bag for $5 or so off Amazon/Ebay.

 It's pretty unobtrusive from a distance.  Along with tipping a model on its side for knocked down/stunned, a wound or two is about the limit of my tolerance for tokens as I hate the mess. As you know, my tolerance for hitpoints is 0 (unless it is something like a warship - which would be expected to absorb dozens of hits and slowly lose hull integrity/sink).

The Carnevale table has already had a workout when a force of Corsairs landed attempting to seize the Arkenstone of all Pirates but the men of Gondor thwarted them by tossing it in a canal, largely thanks to hideous dice rolling from the normally lethal Corsair arbalesters...

 

And nearby, my pizza-table still has an ongoing game with my son (who likes Angmar cos wargs, trolls AND spirits). I always spot him a much bigger force then aim to let him win while making his life difficult. He lost a lot of Wargs impetuouisly charging into my reliable Rangers, thanks to his head canon which says they are much awesomer than they are in-game.

Finally, I got some cool birthday loot. My family never gets me minis as they know they may violate the special budget spreadsheet. So....

I enjoyed Tenet but I may actually understand it when I rewatch it. Death Race is a guilty pleasure (plus I am dusting off Gaslands and just home made some Shift dice as my son is interested, so I need it for research purposes!). LoTR needs no explanation.  

I did order a copy of Osprey's En Garde! as I liked Ronin and I need some more rules for pirates (currently using Legends of the High Seas)...

Also the wife got me some specialty coffee. I may whinge about Aussie postage and 'Australia tax' on minis etc - but I admit our coffee is some of the best anywhere thanks to Greek and Italian migrants. Actually Starbucks et al has never taken off here (and many of the existing ones have shut down as we actually know what good coffee is...)