Further Facinations

Since I've been finding interesting art work of late, I thought I'd share some more of it.

These works are from the Polish artist, Jakub Rozalski. His subjects tend more to the "Steampunk" than the futuristic Science-fiction. He draws the inspiration for his art from Polish history and from some rather grim mythology. Some of his work illustrates an other-when Soviet-Polish War of the 1919-1921, a Polish rebellion against Tsarist Russia in the 1830's, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and some horrific (in the sense of horror movies) works from what he calls his "Wolfpack 1863." I'm not much for horror movies, but this man's work is very interesting. His early 20th Century Steampunk works are evocative of such things as the band, Steam Powered Giraffe, as well as some alternative fiction. Many of his illustrations are for video games where they set the atmosphere.

An illustration of a twisted, steampunky version of the 1831 rebellion.
Even the Napoleonic-ish constructs are wearing shakos.

A little view of some futuristic Polish army units on some not-to-be-hoped-for battlefield.

An interesting view of the advance of the Kosciuszko Squadron made up of American volunteers.
There actually was such a unit in the Polish-Bolshevik War, but it was a squadron of planes.
Pity.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be as calm with the flocks if those mech stomped by.

A German/"Saxonian Empire" armoured unit advances.
The officer in the foreground is one of the characters in the video game, as his his wolf.
The mech is based on the hull of the German A10 tank from the First World War.

The Polish resistance, led by Anna, another named character from the video game.
She's usually accompanied by her bear, Woytek.

There he is! On detached duty.

Nordic Empire intervention forces. I think they're from Scandinavia and might be
Swedes or Finn (who had a bone to pick with the Bolsheviks.)

"Iron Fields" Cold... mechanized... industrial...

Anna and Woytek ask directions... and get them, I'd guess.
Note the harness and packs on the bear; he pulls his own weight.

A Nordic Hunter... a Steampunk viking! and why not?
Of course you can mix genres! It's imagination!

Polish cavalry and mechs advance past some women continuing to work in the fields.
They're braver than I.

I think this is called "Leaving Home." The woman is handing the sabre to her man before he rides off to battle
with the uhlans and the mechs in the background.
I find this piece very evocative and romantic... and really cold.

If you look close you can see the Soviet mechs firing while Red Army cavalry advance in front of them.
The Poles, both mechs and cavalry advance from the right of the piece. It appears some cavalry have been
detailed to screen the farm workers.

Winged Hussars... with bazookas! Oh, yeah!

The Battle of Warsaw. Steampunk romantic art.

Crimean Tatars with a wild tricycle mech in the background and a walking one behind that.

This is just called "Medic." My wife and daughter find it heart-breaking.

This fiery image is a piece showing the German/Saxonian (I'm at a loss) invasion of the newly
revived Polish nation.

This one has to do with the 1939 German invasion of Poland...
with a massive steampunk twist.

Scary stuff from the "Wolfpack" gallery. I don't like Werewolves very much.

This is a separate case. The Krampus and Santa Claus duke it out in the snow while children watch.
A bit disturbing.

The artist also has a series of works based on a world where Samurai Japan intersects with Viking homelands.
I think it's called "The Ancients" and there's plenty of large monsters or deities or demigods all around.
Here the giant Shogun cuts into a Samurai army.

This is just a small sample of Mr. Rozalski's work. There's lots more... some of which I'm not as much interested in. The "historical" works I find intriguing. I recommend you look them up and enjoy them. I may do more another time.

One last one... entitled "Knock knock."

Facinations

I haven't been blogging much of late. I've been too busy now that I'm covering two Christian congregations, one Evangelical Lutheran and one Anglican. At least they're in the same town!

I have discovered an artist whose work intrigues me, namely the Swedish digital artist, Simon Stålenhag. I find his art fantastic, satisfying, and often at the same time, disturbing. Maybe all you folks who read my blog know all about him; I just feel I'd like to share some of his visions.

Much of the man's art is "a Sci-Fi 80's that never was."
Often the works depict a Sweden that wasn't, although some show Northern California.
Many of the pieces look quite cold... and normal... and twisted.

This is called "Fly-By."
I'd have to ask all sorts of questions.
What's going on? Who is flying?

Some sort of out-door winter rescue unit. I just like the vehicles.

Familiar... yet entirely alien.

This one's titled "Local Servers."
Of what? For what? Why so many cables?
May of these pieces are from an RPG and an art book entitled "Tales from the Loop" and another called
"The Electric State", which all seems to be some sort of interconnected society.

Kids building a snow fort... in the shadow of the Loop's cooling towers.

A little less winter-y, but still the alien familiar.

... and some of the things are just out-right weird and whimsical.

Colossal Ducks used for target practice by unknowns. Part of the northern California part of "The Electric State."

"War Machines" Building? Disassembling?
How big are those things?

The artist does dinosaurs, too.

Since I was a little kid, I've loved dinosaurs. How could I not love this?

Bad day on the delivery route.

Living in Canada as I do, I could imagine this scene of run-away mechs.

"Decoy"
Are the mechs curious? Are they ticked off? Are they being led into a trap?
The rear mech has an air of curiosity to my thinking.

This is my favourite one.
Abandoned Swedish military mechs... back from stomping around.
I have a load of questions.

I have another artist in mind, but I'll save that for another entry.

Games Group Christmas Shenanigans

The Hamilton Road Games Group held its Christmas/Holiday party this past Saturday. Martin was flying home for Christmas later this week and we wanted to have our usual unusual games before he left. The festivities also included hot chocolate, cup cakes, cookies, and the like.

If I can dare call it a "tradition", we up held the tradition of the Wings of War Christmas Flight. All the players ran one WWI aircraft and the first player out returned as Snoopy in his Sopwith Camel. The Red Baron then makes an appearance and they go 'round and 'round. Santa arrives in his sleigh with a special twist. If you shoot and damage Santa's sleigh, YOU get the damage since you're now on the "Naughty List." This is always fun.

Ralph loaned us his "official" fly-over maps which added to the look of the game.

A bit further back - this shows that two battle mats were used so we could cover a whole table.

In her first outing, my daughter's friend Nia took to the air.
I don't know if she was victorious or not.

My daughter Katie uses the firing template to take a shot at Santa.
(Don't do it! It's too close to Christmas!)

All sort of aerial action.

The second game set up was a pulp fiction game (having nothing to do with the movie of the same name.) Here the Krampus and his associates have kidnapped Santa at the North Pole in order to destroy Christmas. The horror! A number of teams of adventurers responded to the call to help and rushed to the North Pole to free Kris Kringle and his work force. (Including Bernard the head elf, a few elves, Chris-moose [it is Canada after all], Chris-mouse [die Weihnachtsmaus who is to blame for anything and everything that might go wrong at Christmas], and Dominic the Christmas Donkey.)

The adventurer teams included:
                     Martin's Anti-Cthulhu academic and his soldier followers
                     Katie's SSR lead by Agent Peggy Carter
                     Nia's Star Wars crew
                     Kevin's team starring The Shadow
                     Bear's Sci-fi Highlanders
                     Derek's US Rocket Corps
                     The RCMP led by a new-comer whose name I never really got.
Opposing them;
                     Beth's Krampus with Chicago-style gangsters
                     Mark's team of 1920's brown-shirt stormtroopes led by Ebeneezer Scrooge
                     Matt's team of white-armoured stormtroopes led by the Grinch
The board was loaded with surprises. We used a variant of the 5-Core pulp adventure rules and they worked pretty well. Kevin knew the rules quite well and I relied on him to interpret many of the points of order. I recommend these rules and 5-Core has rules for just about every time period. (Five Men At Kursk, Five Men At Normandy, Chevauchee, On Samhain's Eve [fantasy skirmish})

I brought out my ancient and beloved castle model. Originally Rich was going to lend us his Wild West
Town houses, but the weather kept on his snow clearance job. His wife and daughters did come and they
helped captain at least one group.

Yes, it IS the North Pole.

Martin,, Katie, and Nia look something up on Katie's phone.

The game in progress with Nessie in play attacking the Anti-Cthulhu squad.

Bear's Sci-Fi Highlanders approach the Mystic Stone Circle with its stand of palm trees.
(Everything doesn't have to make sense, y'know.)

Kevin's Shadow team including Margo Lane, Moe Schrebnitz, The Thug, the Waiter, and the useless Physicist
move on after having chased away the Hippo You Want for Christmas.
The playing cards indicated the movement order. I had a deck and shuffled it each turn.

The US Rocket Corps look on as the Anti-Cthulhu team faces Nessie, the T-Rex
hidden in the mystical snows outside of Santa's castle.
Small coloured and numbered blocks indicate an encounter with the unknown
when the team came within 4 inches of the block.

Peggy Carter and Dum-Dum Dugan move toward the castle roadblock once
R2D2 roused them from unconsciousness and a stun that resulted from Mark
dropping grenades from the tower above them.

The Anti-Cthulhu squad took down Nessie with well place Lee-Enfield fire.

The Highlanders encountered the Toyland Fencibles and were troubled by the four-armed
ape who the Highlanders had chased off. They also discovered a hidden Zeppelin and used
it to get over the castle walls.

The US Rocket Corps successfully flew over the wall (whenever they flew, there was a chance
they'd blow up in mid-air) and skulk around trying to find the place where Santa was hidden.

Surprise! The Krampus' robot companion/bodyguard, Big Bob BSR faces down the Shadow.
Big Bob was immune to the Shadow's mysterious laugh, but not the Shadow's twin 45's.
That is, once the Shadow recovered from the surprise.
Oh, BSR means "Big Stompy Robot."

Peggy and Dum-Dum entered the castle and turned their Tommy Guns on Big Bob,

The RCMP led by Sgt. Preston and his dog King moved to the last encounter marker
and met with Dr. Who and his TARDIS who agreed to deliver them anywhere on
the board. They piled in and piled out to attack Big Bob.
The Commissioner - a beaver in uniform - wasn't really there.

A different view of the RCMP and their TARDIS ride.

Big Bob collapses under the fire of the SSR, the Shadow, and the Anti-Cthutlu squad.

The group between moves.

I know your favourite character is Nessie, so here's another view of the T-Rex
as he dukes it out with the Anti-Cthulhu squad.

Earlier in the game, the four-armed ape attacks the Sci-Fi Highlanders and the
Toyland Fencibles. Anything can happen in this sort of game.

In the end, time ran out before the adventurers could get Santa and his guys off the board although with one more turn of the cards, Santa would've been freed. As it was, the Star War's Crew did free Chris-moose, Chris-mouse, and Dominic the Donkey.

That was the bulk of the adventures this past weekend. A good way to prepare ourselves for the Christmas holiday. The library closes early on the next two Saturdays for Christmas and New Year's. If time permits, I may get some gaming and some blogging in.

I hope all you who take time to read this have an enjoyable Christmas and New Year holiday.