Novara 1513 deployments

We have been slaughtering the Swiss in our Cerignola 1503 game for months. That just isn't fair. So for this week's game I have set up what might be described as the last great victory of the Swiss - Novara 1513.

The battle, simply described, is a surprise attack by the Swiss, at dawn, on an unfortified, and unsuspecting, enemy (French) camp. This is typically Swiss, but the numbers of Swiss in each of their three manoeuvre groups was at variance with their usual tactics: instead of three equal squares they used one of 1000, one of 2000, and one of 7000.

I have used Oman as my primary source and I have deployed the Swiss, on table, in their positions just after the clash of the Swiss diversionary frontal attack on the village of Trecate between Swiss 'enfants perdus' and French pickets. The French C-in-C, partly dressed and armed, has narrowly escaped capture by leaving his billet through the back door. The alarm has been sounded!

Because the Swiss attacked in their traditional formation of three pike squares in echelon, this has put the leading square, along with the Duke of Milan's cavalry, well behind the flank of the French encampment. This is the only position that makes sense. Oman says that they passed by Trecate in the dark, using local guides, and attacked the baggage park that lay beyond. The space this deployment requires is the reason why the on-table deployments have not been laid 'square'.

With a big scoop of fudge, figure scale is about 1:50. Here are some closer shots of the different parts of the action.

We will fight this action on Wednesday night. It is not a big battle, and the nature of terrain (lack of it, for the most part) should make it a pacey affair.

Eyepet - Oakdale Infants Project Overview

Eyepet is a two week literacy plan to help cover fantasy settings in Year 1. It is usually completed in the autumn term and is planned to be very creative and to develop and extend the children’s imagination and use of descriptive language. There are strong cross curricular links to Art but there are also links to Design and technology and science. The children us the PS3 for about 20 Minutes if that throughout the whole project! The first thing we did was sit the whole year group down to watch the beginning sequence of the game. We asked them lots of questions around where were they?  Who was the man in the white coat? etc pausing the game each time to get the children’s responses. We let them watch up to the point where an egg is delivered and then turned the ps3 off. We went back to our classes and did a lot of work around the egg where is it from? What is inside it? How did it get here? We really focused on our question words and asked the children to write their questions on post it notes and place on large egg shaped paper. By the end of the 2 weeks the children had designed their own planets and eyepets, they had written stories and descriptions about the eyepet and its home planet and also created a detailed care plan for their eyepet including likes and dislikes and the best way to look after their eyepet.

Cosmoids Win or Lose! 10% Reached in the Fundraiser! Route 32 Continued! Pink Pokemon! and Egg Hunt!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Where we work non stop to keep you entertained!

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza!  

Last Week's Update
For the last update I focused again on increasing the level cap and adding new pokemon to the game. We increased the level cap to 35 adding over 20 of moves in the process. In addition we added the PTD1 to PTD2 transfer of Eevee, Jolteon, Vaporeon, and Flareon. A much requested transfer which opened up the possibilities of getting Espeon and Umbreon in PTD2 using the Friendship doll. On top of all of that we had our Fire Mystery Gift and Giveaway. Darumaka was the Mystery Gift which brought him and his evolution Darmanitan and the eagerly awaited Zen Mode ability. The Giveaway was Torkoal. On the Cosmoids side of things I worked a lot on the first level, trying to make it exciting and somewhat challenging. I still have a couple of more tweaks to add but you can check out what I have so far in the Funding Rewards Page of the PTD2 Trading Center. A good week overall in my book!

Live Streaming Update
I had a lot of fun live streaming for you guys, unfortunately as you might have experienced my computer couldn't handle it. Thankfully I will be getting a new computer thanks to your guy's support! Once I get that and set it up then I will be streaming all the time! Wooo! 

Cosmoids Win or Lose
If you have played the Cosmoids Early Alpha you will notice that you can't win or lose. The game just kinda stops there. So this week I will be adding Win and Lose conditions. Win or Lose screens are a staple in all video games and it's about time they come to Cosmoids. On top of that Evan, one of our freelance artist, did some grass graphics that I will implement. I will also be adding more graphics to the caterpillar's small bite attack as well as other small tweaks to the level. The game is progressing nicely and I can't wait until more of it is done!

10% Reached in the Fundraiser!
It's a great day today! We reached (and passed) the 10% mark of our fundraiser. With over 6,037 funders we have reached this goal. It is only the beginning and we will slowly reach our goal. The thing to remember that it's just Dan and I working on things here and with taxes coming up we have been busy taking care of that part of the business. Anyways.. Looking at the poll right now Heatran is winning to be the 10 dollar giveaway legendary. On top of getting the legendary, people who donate 10 dollars will also get their choice of Cosmoids starter for their PTD2 account!

Pink Pokemon!
When choosing this week's PTD1 to PTD2 transfers I noticed something. All the ones I picked are pink! That was awkward! Anywho the main thing here is that they all have evolutions that are from different generations. The three that I choose were: Chansey, Lickitung and Clefairy! Naturally all their evolutions will show up if the items/attacks are implemented in the game (meaning no Happiny for now).

Route 32 Continued..
I promised another story level this week and well I'm keeping my promise. This week we will wrap things up in Ruins of Alph and head back to Route 32. This time we will meet with a peculiar Fisherman who seems to be catching different water pokemon depending on the day of the week. The way I hope it works out is that the battle you will face will change every few days based on who can be fished in that spot.

Egg Hunt
It's Easter! Easter has many meanings to different people, but for PTD2 it means an Egg hunt and a new pokemon prize at the end of it. This egg hunt will only be available for one week so make sure to be part of it and receive your Buneary!

Mystery Gift
Like every week we will also have a Mystery Gift! Psychic has won and it looks like Ralts will be the mystery gift but the giveaway pokemon (the runner up) is not as clear yet.

Weekly Progress
Now that we looked at everything that is coming this week (possibly over 20 new pokemon!) let's look at the list.

Cosmoids Released!

• Win/Lose Screen (100%) 
• Adding Subtle Grass Graphics (100%)
• Adding Small Bite Graphics (100%)
• Not allowing the player to place their tower outside of the screen or close to the outside (100%)

PTD2 v1.40.1 Released!

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• Female Avatars will now be able to enter Route 32's second section (100%)

PTD2 v1.40 Released!

• PTD1 to PTD2 Transfers (100%)
• Egg Hunt (100%)- Egg hunts starts in New Bark Town, talk to the Scientist in the middle of the town!
• New Story Level (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Map (100%)
• Level Layout (100%)
• Level Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%) 
• Police Battle 2 (100%)
• Add a way to repeat the battle with normal Unown (100%)
• Test New Pokemon, Attacks, Abilities and Evolutions (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%) - Chansey, Blissey, Lickitung, Lickilicky, Clefairy, Clefable, Cleffa, Tentacool, Tentacruel, Magikarp, Gyarados, Qwilfish, Buneary, Lopunny, Heatran, Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir, Gallade, Solosis, Duosion, Reuniclus! SO MANY! 22!
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Attacks (100%)
• Bestow (100%)
• Cosmic Power (100%)
• Metronome (100%)
• Stomp (100%)
• Softboiled (100%)
• Fling (100%)
• Bubblebeam (100%)
• Barrier (100%)
• Spikes (100%)
• Brine (100%)
• Frustration (100%)
• Jump Kick (100%)
• Mirror Coat (100%)
• Magic Coat (100%)
• Return (100%)
• Teleport (100%)
• Heal Pulse (100%)
• Calm Mind (100%)
• Healing Wish (100%) 
• Psywave (100%)
• Snatch (100%)
• Recover (100%)
• Psyshock (100%)
• Future Sight (100%)
• Pain Split (100%)
• Abilities (100%)
• Healer (100%)
• Own Tempo (100%)
• Magic Guard (100%)
• Liquid Ooze (100%)
• Trace (100%)
• Telepathy (100%) 
• Regenerator (100%)
• Evolutions (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Bug Fixes (100%)
• You can only pickup certain items using the Pickup ability (100%)

So much to do, so little time! As always let me know what you think! Twitter, comments below or email. Thanks for visiting!

Pics from around the web

I apologize for not properly attributing the photos, I nabbed them as I found them ;) but I wanted to show some painted figs and some neat ideas.

 

Another batch of gendarme types

As followers will know, I recently painted up 24 wargames Foundry men-at arms for my Italian Wars collection. I think the heavy cavalry for this period is fantastic, so I don't mind spending a little time making them look a bit special. This brings my men-at-arms numbers up to 15 units (120 figures).

Here is a reminder of that first batch.

It was the first batch of two planned batches. They would be mixed together for plenty of variation in colour and pattern.





http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/newly-recruited-gendarme-types.html

This week I finished batch two, and I based them up today. Here are both batches together. 
  
I also included a couple of extra figures for men-at-arms command stands.

The batch was 26 figures in total.

I decided to carry on with the 'geometric pattern' approach in an effort to save time.

This was important as the second batch had twice as many figures riding barded horses!

As well as using the usual stripes, quarters and checks, I decided to pinch a a simple geometric petal design that I have used previously used on 'eastern / oriental' cavalry. It worked well, and was easy peasy to do once I worked out where to put the first 'flower' - mid top back, and front boss.



Below are some close ups of some of the more interesting figures in batch two. During the basing process (in the drying times) I painted up five new cavalry standards. These are all interchangable of course - they are on 3/32 tubing slotted over 0.047 gauge piano wire 'poles'.
http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/top-tip-flags.html

Making generic earthworks

The Cerignola game stuff is nearing completion; even the last of the Gendarme types are almost finished. One job I was not looking forward to, was making 12" of earthworks to add to the ones I already have. Making them is not a problem, as they are easy enough to construct. But, I'm adding them to ones I've had for a while and I have to make the old and new blend in. This is never easy: I tend to use cheaply bought (heavily discounted) artists acrylics and odds and sods household emulsions for terrain, and when used up it gets replaced with something similar but, not usually the same.

Anyway, I have taken a few shots of my 'generic earthworks' to show how I made them. They are easy to construct and they are also quite cheap - which puts them into the scope of most gamers.

Firstly, making 12" of earthwork seemed a bit silly. Earthworks are so quick and simple to construct that you might as well make a batch of pieces. I had 16 resin gabions in the locker, so I laid them out next to a tape measure and worked out the length of earthwork I could manufacture from them. It worked out at 36 inches (3 'long' sections).

This is a lot of earthwork for 16 gabions - but I cheat the cost.

After gluing the gabions back towards one edge (see pic above), singly and in pairs, to a strip of 2mm MDF (35mm wide), I cheat the cost by gluing a piece of card in the space between the gabions.

Note: The wide side of the MDF strip will be the front of the earthwork and the narrow side will be the back (defender's) side.

Note: Each strip starts and ends with a gabion. They make the section joins 'disappear'.

To the back (defender's) side of the card I stick horizontally laid lengths of wooded barbecue skewers. (I cut the skewer to length with wire snips). Then I add some vertical 'holding posts'. This is where the cost savings are made - wooden skewers and card are as cheap as chips and look perfectly acceptable as 'barricade' when finished.

At this point I undercoated everything with dark brown artists acrylic.


Next I added the 'earth' to the front of the breastwork. For this I used terracotta Daz modelling clay. It air drys, doesn't shrink much (hardly at all), is strong and durable when set, and is cheap - I used half a 500g pack that I picked up, from ebay, for £3 including postage for this job.
Once dry I used PVA to texture the clay with sand and grit.

Then I painted the lot with acrylics, acrylic ink, and household emulsions. I added a few patches of flock for more texture and colour - Bob's your uncle, 3 foot of generic 16th to mid 19th Century earthworks.

Getting them to match with the old sections - 8 out of 10? Perhaps I'll leave you to be the judge. BTW, the mid section is the old stuff.

There is another difference between old and new that will not be immediately apparent. The basing uses a different material - the old basing is perspex from an old shower screen, alas, now all used up. Old shower screen, now, those were the days......