Bats, Rats and More Rats

Spray painting and simple designs have actually got me going! After some tests in the last month, this week I set in motion an old project.

I had bought quite a few sets of Warhammer swarms in a sale. So I've got 25 each of bats, rats, spiders and goblins. Oh yes, and six bases with metal rat swarms. So on a sunny morning I applied the can.

Spray painting was easy, but I decided to try two different sets of rats: some with a light (bone white) base coat, and the rest brown.

I then started off on five bats, to see what effect might be achieved with drybrushing. I actually did some reseach on bats and that's why they look so cuddly.

These are the metal rat swarms. I just love those pink tails! More on the big rats later.

The biggest pleasure is of course that I got it all done in a few hours. All this goes really well with a Skaven army, but is also really handy in stand alone dungeoneering. There's still a bunch of spiders lurking in the box but that will be a bit harder to spray paint due to their model.

Godzilla in Amsterdam - A Civilian Crisis Game

From the dark water it rose. The ferry rolled heavily to port as the frightened passengers stared incredulously into the air and the fiery eyes of the monster. Their panicked cries smothered in the waves as the boat capsized into the river. Without noticing, the monster made landfall, placing its feet carelessly on and between the sleepy crowd of early commuters at the Central Station. As fear spread quickly, soon the alarm rang at all police stations and the mayor was awakened. Within an hour the crisis team was convened at the mayor's office, determined to deal with the thread as it presented itself.

As nobody knew Godzilla's drive and had no way of dealing with her, the first efforts were aimed at saving the roaming tourists and local population. Entrance into the town centre was blocked. Another objective was to save as much of the art treasures and monumental areas of the town for future generations. With Godzilla striding towards Museum Square, this became an increasing concern.

But while a team of brilliant scientists was set up to deal with the monster, the local services proved quite capable of limiting the immediate destruction. The fire brigade limited fires around Godzilla to a minimum, tourist were led out of town. And then disaster struck...

The Game Map

Fearing the potential damage to the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Gallery and the monumental Concertgebouw, the government had ordered the air force to prepare an air strike. The air force took this as a remit to actually bomb and laid all its powers of annihilation on Godzilla, destroying large amounts of fire brigade and ambulance material. The museums were levelled as hysterical conservators frantically laid down their lives in a heroic, but utterly futile effort to save Rembrandt's Night Watch and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.


All to the displeasure of the monster, which only became more enraged and determined to reach its goal. With the government and the rescue effort in shambles, all hope was laid in the hands of the scientists, who had been happily discussing alternative theories of Godzilla's descent and interesting evolutionary traits not commonly known in other bipedal reptiles.

They were rudely awakened to the enormity of their task and despite their pleas to save the specimen for future scientific research, they were persuaded at last to rather render their services to save human lives. The solution then proved relatively simple.

In the meantime Godzilla had continued her way leaving a smouldering wasteland in her trail. She was now reaching the edge of the city centre, where masses of refugees had been collected as well as the inbound commuters. No way in hell that these people could be evacuated from there in time.

In their race against the clock the scientist managed to apply their device to the monster and release the hollow charges to puncture its armoured scales, thereby releasing a compound (the composition of which is still to this day classified) that finally ended the life of Godzilla. Writhing in her dying flames, the giant reptile's anguished cries echoed over the badly damaged city...

Where the politicians immediately set out a parliamentary investigation of the decisions that led to the fateful bombing mission...

Then prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende
cleared by the parliamentary investigation

Godzilla is a game that employs more political aspects than operational games. In Godzilla the players were all members of the police, fire brigade and ambulance service in the great city of Amsterdam. The mayor and his staff were to coordinate the life saving effort faced with the towering hulk of the monster rising up from the river. In the background the Dutch government was bringing in fresh assets, like the armed forces and the team of brilliant scientists.

Most players stood around the table taking care of their units, convening for a few minutes every turn as their leaders coordinated their efforts. The mayor's office, the government and the headquarters of the armed forces were further away and relied on reports from the mayor to decide on issues off the map and dealt with anxious journalists.



If you are interested in playing in a megagame sometime, have a look at Megagame Makers. They do about six games a year in London and Leeds in the UK. Or Megagames NL, who do one game a year in the Netherlands.

The Magnificent Monsters of Anthony the Abbot

On a trip to Antwerp over a week ago, we visited a few interesting places, like the excellent MAS (Museum aan de Stroom), with a rich combination of four collections stretching from anthropology (international and local) to local history. And Antwerp has a illustrious history as the greatest and richest port of Europe in the late Middle Ages.

A 17th century interpretation by Antwerp painter David Teniers

You can still find many remains of that golden age around the city, and one of the best places is the Mayer van den Bergh house, which holds a small but excellent collection of medieval and early modern art. The collector after whom the house is named started to buy all these art objects on business trips. He didn't think like a museum director, pursuing a direction and filling in gaps, but bought what was available through local traders and other collectors, all based on his personal preferences.

This means there is stuff from the Low Countries down to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy and the objects range from religious objects to bourgeois furniture. I stood amazed watching a piece of beautifully crafted ivory from the 10th century, which had been carved in the back of an Byzantine original from a century earlier.

The Dulle Griet

But the top stuff are a couple of paintings by Pieter Bruegel, the most famous being the Dulle Griet, an apocalyptic view with an armed and armoured women carrying her spoils across it. I easily spent a quarter of an hour enjoying this.

But there's another bit that I found interesting, which were a couple of paintings showing the temptation of Anthony the Abbot, one of the founders of the Christian monasterial tradition. It was a theme I hadn't noticed before, but which happens to have been popular in the Middle Ages, but also inspired Dali.

Bruegel's take on the temptations of Anthony the Abbot

The reason why I was so interested is because it shows contemporary views on what monsters and demons would look like and I am fascinated. The monsters are all a bit comical, rather than scary. There´s a brilliant site on Anthony with lots of illustrations of paintings over the ages. Below I post one from 1490 that I actually like best, because it is so different from contemporary paintings. The colours are so bold and the monsters so stylised! It made me think of Indian art.

Giovanni Pietro da Birago, ca 1490. Incredible