Song of Bricks and Lego

I want to start blogging, about other peoples experiences, who are using Lego to play wargames. I want to record their games and collate their stories. I hope, as I do this, I find more and more games out there in cyber-space to record here on my blog. The more stories and games I record, he more inspiration others will get to play Lego wargames. Well that is my desire.

This is my first find, and it is from The "Chicago Skirmish Wargames" Blog. This game, they called Song of Bricks and Lego. Click on the link to read the whole story, and see the lovely pictures.

GLUG - Gaming Lego Users' Group

Back in 2003, a new LUG (Lego User Group) was formed. The group was called GLUG, which stands for the "Gaming Lego Users' Group".

It was formed by James Brown and Chris Weeks and it was originally inspired by the need for an official group to run LEGO-themed events at GenCon. It is now 2012, and I want to know what has happened to GLUG.

I am now going to look for GLUG, and  I will report back soon.

Stay Tuned.

Official GenCon Website: http://www.gencon.com/

Terrain - Modular Landscaping with Lego

This is a link to an article by Magnus Lauglo. It describes the method of creating modular Lego base plates with elevated sections, all which inter-connect to form a large diorama base or more importantly a large wargame terrain base. There are hills, roads and river sections. Add some trees and buildings, and you have a really nice wargame layout.

Modular River Sections

Photos by: Magnus Lauglo

Some of the Modular Sections

Photos by: Magnus Lauglo

An example of the sections connected together

Photos by: Magnus Lauglo

Another example of the sections connected together

Photos by: Magnus Lauglo

Have a look at the link (http://militarylego.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/modular-landscaping-and-brickfair.html) for more photos and a very detailed description, as to how he builds this terrain.

Lego Mechs and Walkers

One of my favourite gaming genre, is wargames played with big fighting robots or mechs/mecha. In more recent times I have liked my mech technology to be a little clunky. I like the VSF steam punk robots and mechs I see, and now the desiel-punk mechs as well. I am seeing lots of great Lego creations which I would really like to see on a wargaming tables. Below is a list of Lego mechs, of this "clunky" genre.

When Mechs were in their infancy.

Built by Lemon_Boy

Built by Unkown Builder

Built by Unkown Builder

SM-101 'Roosevelt'

Built by Ribbitz

Weapons - Brickarms

So, where do I get all those cool weapons I see?

The place you are looking for is probably Brickarms (http://www.brickarms.com/), These guys (Will Chapman and his family) make some really cool Lego compatible weapons.

They make weapons for modern warfare, as well as historical weapons, there are even selection of sci-fi weapons as well. Head over to their website and have a look, I am sure you will find what you need for some awesome minifig customizing.

The best thing about Brickarms is the quality. It is just as good a product, as Lego would make. The weapons are nicely proportioned to the Lego minifig, and they usually come in a variety of colours, including black, dark grey, white and sometimes in various tansparant colours.

[images coming soon]

Terrain - Flocked Hex Tiles

From my earlier post. The one showing the lovely images of the Star Wars Lego wargame. I was fascinated by the terrain tiles, and how they complemented the actual Lego wargame pieces. So I did a quick Google search and found these.

Hexon II - Flocked Green Tile

Hexon II - Sample Board

They are called Hexon II Tiles, and you can purchase them ready flocked. These flocked tiles look very very similar to the ones used in the Star Wars game. What do you think?

Lego Star Wars Wargame - Salute 2010

This is not by me, but I would have certainly loved to have played on it. I got these images from a contact I have on Flickr, who goes by the name of “jontlaw”. Here is his Flickr photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontlaw/). There are many images of wargames, and they are all lovely and inspiring. But for me it was these images of the Star Wars wargame, which sealed my desire to seriously wargame with Lego. The guys who ran the game, have a website (www.darkknightsandbloodydawns.btik.com/), but I couldn't find anything specific about this Star Wars Lego game.

This particular game was held at Salute 2010 and it was the winner of the Robin Hunt Award for the most Innovative Game.

Enjoy the pictures. I know I have.

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

 

Star Wars Lego Game
Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

Star Wars Lego Game

Photo by jontlaw, Game by Dark Knights & Bloody Dawns

I hope you are all inspired to go out and set up a beautiful looking Lego wargame, just like this one. I will do a write up about the trees and the table surface used in this game, as these are not Lego.



Old Lego Castle and Knights

Here are some photos of some old (dare I say vintage) knights and their castle. I remember these as a child. I never had this set, but I remember wishing I did. I think my desire to wargame with Lego, is probably to fill my childhood desire of owning more Lego, and being able to build a Lego army with it. Shhh…don’t tell anyone.


Enjoy these pictures.

Old Lego Knights

Photo by Jaeger

Old Lego Castle Soldiers

Photo by Jaeger

Old Yellow Castle

Photo by Jaeger

These images are from the Lego set of 375/6075 - "Yellow Castle", which was first released in Europe in 1978, and was the first LEGO castle. It was realeased in 1981 in the USA.


This set included four knights and 4 soldiers (one for each of the knights). Each knight had their own coat of arms. There was also six soldiers who guarded the yellow castle.

Green Army Men - Pylon Suit

As a follow on to my previous post about the Green Army Men. I have found this image, which i would like to share with you. It is a battlefield mech (I love my mechs), and this is one is a medical mech, built with the "Green Army Men" theme.

Pylon Suit (Battlefield Mech)

Built by Slushey

What is clever about this Mech, is that it uses a lot of parts of the actual  Green Army Men, like their legs, helmets and arms to create the Mech. Nice work.

Green Army Men

This is the closest that the Lego company has come to producing modern army men. This is a set from the "Toy Story" animation, and these little guys is a mimic the 54mm toy plastic army men, which most of us owned as children. These guys have a lot of appeal to modern wargamers.

Lego Army Men

Photo by Tech109

Wargaming Rules - Lego Specific

I can hear you asking the question - So what sort of rules, can be used for wargaming?

The answer is. Any rules really, but I would think that any any rules which were written for 28mm - 54mm figures could easily be used for Lego wargaming. Things like Warhammer (fantasy and 40K0, Warmachine, Songs of Blades and Heroes, Nuts, the list goes on and on.

There are also some rules which have been written specifically for wargaming with Lego, and I have compiled a list of the more popular ones:

BattleBrik
Wargaming with Lego
battlebrik.wordpress.com

BOW (Bricks Only Wargame)
Another Wargame system for LEGO® bricks
bow.lswproject.com/

BrikWars
The plastic-brick wargaming system of chaos and destruction
www.brikwars.com/

Lego OGRE
Building OGRE miniatures with LEGO bricks
http://www.efran.org/embassy/lego-ogre.html

Lego War Game
Turn-based Lego war game
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/65268

Where to find Minifigs

It is fairly obvious, that if you want to play Wargames with Lego, you are going to need a lot of minifigs. The question is where do we get lots of minifigs of the same kind. The obvious answer, is to simply go to the toy store and purchase 20 to 30 boxes of the same Lego set, so as to get the same minifigs, to build your army. The reality is, that buying so many boxes of the same set may not be possible, either due to cost or availability. Most of time, you will only want one minifigure anyway, as opposed to the whole set. So where do you get lots of minifigs without buying whole Lego sets? The answer is:

1. eBay: My favourite online auction site. Lots and lots of Lego is now avaialable via eBay, especially bulk lots of minifigs. Do a search and you will see what you can find. You will even find individual minifigs as well, which is great for creating individual characters. http://www.ebay.com/

2. Brickshelf: This website should be a "must-go" for all Lego collectors, and has every minifigure avaialble (for a price) ever produced. The great thing is that individual minifigure parts like heads, legs and torsos, are readily available as well. This means, you can either get replacement parts for your minifigures, or buy enough parts to make your own custom creations. I have a good selection of spares, which I have purchased from Brickshelf. http://www.brickshelf.com/

3. Lego Conventions: Lego conventions are becoming more and more popular and regular, you will need to do a search on the inernet, for one near you. These usually have traders who sell minifigures, and you can purchase what you need.

Welcome

Welcome to the Plastic Wargames Blog. This is a Blog about playing Wargames with little plastic men, like Lego. I will discuss things like which rules to use, and how to make terrain from Lego. And of course I will cover all the possible minifigs, that can be used for wargaming, which should cater for quite a few of possible wargame genres.

This a wargame played by the

Dark Knights (http://darkknightsandbloodydawns.btck.co.uk/)

at a UK wargame convention.