He Said Wyvern; I Said Why Not, Vern?

October 26, 2015, 10:14 am

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We have another SkypeBoot coming up (going back to 8th Ed, 2500pts - so it should be a humdinger). And as a change of pace, Kraken will be fielding my greenskin army.

As I was listing the models I had available, Kraken causally asked: "I don't suppose you've got a wyvern rider?"

Yes, but I wouldn't say it was *totally* finished.

I know the duties of a good host - I had a week to get painting!

I've always liked this particular interpretation of the wyvern - not classical, but a very orky underbite and pot belly. Certainly not to be confused with dragons, which is always an issue.

Here There Be Wyverns

This was how it looked pre-magentising. I had the devil of a time getting a neat fit with the wings, and in the end they took two magnets apiece, plus a bit of reshaping the socket with greenstuff before I could get a fit that wouldn't wobble off when I moved it.

A ninth magnet on the neck was to secure the rider (and allow me to use a rampaging monster if the warboss gets cannonballed off).

Magnets: a wing-wing situation.

I picked up most of the model on eBay, a reasonable price, considering it lacked horns, tail and a rider. But I was quite happy with the bitz I managed to substitute:

• Stegadon horns from this unit filler (bigger than the regular ones)
• Plastic tail from a Chimera (I'm sure there used to be a bygone rule about it having an extra-stingy tail)
• For the rider, just a regular plastic boar boy...

Giddy up!

I had a nice metal boar rider Warboss lined up, but the extra weight on the beastie's neck kept toppling the model over, and it proved a bugger to magnetize.

This is a much simpler job - popping a wee magnet under the bum of one of the new plastic boar boys. To try and beef him up, I added the metal jaws to his helmet (which nicely mirror the wyvern's teeth) and added a second blade to turn his regular axe into a battleaxe.

In terms of paint, there wasn't much to work with - just flesh, armour and strapping. I did add a check pattern to one of the vanbraces, which came out well. I would have done it on other pieces of armour, but I was more than happy with how the rusty metal look appeared.

He's not as imposing a full-on Warboss, although I have plenty of models on foot and boarback to do that job, so this one is definitely just a wyvern-jockey with big ideas.

18" leadership bubble, here I come!

He also has the distinction of being the first Common Orc in this army - which means I had to decide the paint scheme for orky flesh on the fly (boom boom). I wanted something lighter than my Black Orcs, darker than Savage Orcs, more verdant than Night Goblins and not as snotty as Snotlings.

• Flesh: Castellan Green base, Agrax Earthshade wash. Elysian Green highlights
• Armour: Chaos Black Undercoat, Ironbreaker drybrush, Typhus Corrosion wash, Ryza Rust highlights
• Straps: Balor Brown base, Brown Ink wash
• Horns: Chaos Black Undercoat, Ironbreaker drybrush, Tinny Tin highlights
• Trousers: Mechanicus Standard Grey base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Shield and haft: Tallern Sand base, , Agrax Earthshade wash
• Eyes: Blood Red

As luck would have it, I quite like the colour scheme: sufficiently dark and dirty to give the Common Orcs an identity within the greater Waaagh! (who knows, I might actually get around to painting some now!)

If the wings look familiar, it's because you're seen them on every other flying model ever.

The wyvern itself was a different challenge: I wanted it to be green, but not in the same way as any of my other orcs (or trolls, for that matter). I was running out of greens - but I had held back Death World Forest or just such an eventuality.

• Underbelly and wing supports: Death World Forest base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Elysian Green highlights, Nurgling Green Highlights
• Scales: Chaos Black undercoat, Castellan Green highlights, Nuln Oil wash, Nurgling Green Highlights
• Wings: Balor Brown base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Horns and claws: Zandri Dust base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Tail sting: Emeral Green, Agrax Earthshade wash, Tallern Sand highlights
• Eyes: Bilious Green

The wind beneath my wings

And so my challenge is finished - a whole two days before deadline and ready to thunderstomp me into pieces.

Then I discover that Kraken is also hoping to field a Rock Lobba, a second Doom Diver, two Night Goblin Shamans, and an Orc Bully.

I'll fetch me brushes...

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Grinding for Loot

October 27, 2015, 3:34 pm

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Another week brings in another bunch of Crypt Angels. Slow progress (work reasons) is still better than no progress, so two five-man groups this time.

More Tactical Marines, first up, but the spikey kind. Lovely models from the Dark Vengeance set, very detailed. A few duplicate stances, though, so I tore off a few plug-and-play weapons and did some minor conversions.

The Crypt Angels definitely do not worship the Ruinous Powers. These guys are totally clear on that. Their Fourth Company, though, has seen some hard action in some unfortunate quarters, the kind that usually gets you a mindwipe from the Inquisition. They're so low on numbers now that they'd rather keep their slightly questionable members on board than try and start from scratch.

Squad Indictis

As though to counteract any charges of heresy, here are some totally loyal and upright 1st Company Veterans.

More optional weapons here, all but one of them have magnetised right arms. Space Marines are all right-handed, by the way. Finding left arms with weapons (okay, I'm not including the power fists here, just ranged ones) is almost impossible on most sprues. Wonder why.

This next picture is the same three marines from slightly different angles with alternate guns swapped in.

Squad Entenides

 And a Hero, of course. Can't go a week with no hero.

Discotti, Master of Rituals

Sporting the blue stripes of any good Librarium member, this terminator chappie has eschewed the standard force weapon for a double chain fist and ludicrous bayonet. The skull on top is to help balance the weapon, I expect.

Elsewhere, some fantasy filler:

Somebody on the internet claimed that you can use Tyrant Skull paint as a final highlight for red. Using a prepainted Battle Masters halberdier, I thought I'd update his paint and try this out. I remain unconvinced.

Elven Archer (Reaper Bones)

Satyr Archer (Reaper Bones)

Moody Templar (Reaper Bones and definitely not Assassin's Creed)

Dungeon Saga Kickstarter - Unboxing

October 29, 2015, 7:19 am

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Only a couple of months past due (which is hardly anything in Kickstarter terms), the postman staggered up to my door with these weighty contents...

Let's waste no time and get unboxing!

On the top layer were the additional extras I'd ordered - a few extra counters, two resin adventures and the 'Dungeon Raiders' (which are just Kings of War miniatures, destined for my greenskin army)

It also contains the first error of the pack: extra clips when I had ordered some dungeon critters. There was also an unusual way of packaging the Dwarf Enginner, Gunn - put in a sealed bag, with a hole snipped off one end, just large enough for his loose left arm to fall out.

Fortunately, such things are easy to find among a hundred styrofoam packing chips

But let's jump straight to the meat course: Dwarf King's Quest itself!

Once the packaging sleeve is removed (and thrown away, I assume), you get this nice faux-book (cardboard, reasonably solid with a magnet holding the lid shut).

And within, all the contents of your dungeon!

Books, cards, filecards, dungeon tiles and a quickstarter guide.

Furniture, miniatures, dice and tile clips. There was a nice additional touch: a couple of sealable A4 plastic bags to keep all the bits together (you always need them with these games, but never have them in the box).

I haven't opened these bags yet, as there was an error in the packaging - I got twice as many Undead Heroes and half the Undead Minions, so I'll keep the sealed until I can get Mantic to correct them.

Update: my resolve not to open the packets lasted exactly one day. I've kept the extra packet sealed for returning, but the Heroes are now free!

Should a Dwarf+Axe really be taller than a Barbarian?

No doubt: the Zombie Troll Shaman is the star

But I got another Undead set in the expansion, so here are some unpackaged ones. In terms of detail and sculpt, I'd say the miniatures are average (although for the cost, pretty good value).

There will need to be quite a bit of work with hot water just to get them straight (so it's not totally a 'play out of the box' set). I'm not sure I'd put my usual time into painting them, so maybe it's time I invested in some Quickshade.

For the furniture - it's pretty good. The furniture is a kind of solid, rubber, plastic. The doors are a lighter, hard plastic.The treasure chest have separate lids (so you can model them as closed or ransacked), and the little book removes from the plinth.

Off we go to the expansion sets!

This was the external packaging - one of the edges had been glued incorrectly, so it wasn't a straight edge (but as it's ultimately disposable, not really a problem).

Inside, we get a similar box-game book (the top corner is sadly battered, but I guess it was a long trip from China).

Similar contents for the expansions: The Warlord of Galahir, Infernal Crypts and The Tyrant of Halpi.

I like the idea that you can put everything you need in one box - shame it doesn't have the little separators that come with the main boxed game, or the plastic bags for the bits.

The Warlord of Galahir expansion (which I'm forever going to mispronounce as The Warlord of Gallagher).

The Green Rage booster - these models are my current favourite - they seem to absorb the loss of detail (as you get with this plastic) better than the other minis, who have attempted finer details.

The Infernal Crypts expansion.

The Deizens of the Abyss booster - there seem to be an attempt at details here, not too sure how well they work out.

The Tyrant of Halpi expansion.

The only miniature that comes with this expansion is a big damn dragon. This is a pretty good sculpt (although the dragon looks quite portly, compared to the usual svelte style).

These are the other bits that come extra to the expansions - miniatures, cards, heroes and a blank pad of adventurer sheets.

The villains of the expansions on either end. And in the centre, the two protagonists of the fourth expansion, The Return of Valandor.

Apart from the Orc Warlord, these were all a little smaller than I expected. The orc model had me fooled for a while - until you spot the orc face below the wolf helmet, it looks a lot like some kind of werewolf.

The bonus heroes - again, there will be a lot of hot water correction before I can get painting. The halfling thief is also tiny (seems smaller and more frail than even the LotR hobbits), so that's going to be a challenge.

The Kickstarter exclusives: these sculpts seem better, and I particularly like the Dwarf barkeep and dog.

The resin elf - nicely cast (although probably one of the least interesting miniatures in the set)

The final expansion: The Return of Valandor. Including the hardback companion, smaller journal and (it appears) duplicate copies of some mousemat artwork.

A quick flick inside the companion - it looks really nice (although that errata sheet is because these have apparently left out the index).

So that's the whole kaboodle. The production looks good, you get quite a lot of swag for the price, there are only a handful of packing errors, and the game stores neatly on the bookshelf.

Although, for the love of God - couldn't you have made the titles align.

On first impression, I'd give this a B+

Trick or Trick

October 31, 2015, 2:51 am

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Happy Halloween! Here's a selection of appropriately spooky models, freshly raised from the dead painted for your delectation.

Wooooo! Scaaaaaaaary!

This model got used as the Apprentice for my Frostgrave warband the other day. I finished her off earlier in the week, and I've done some minions to go with her.

A Reaper Ghoul, with either frostbite or alopecia depending on which game system he's being fielded in

Even an apprentice needs an apprentice. This model is actually Mr Bones himself, a bonus model from the Bones II Kickstarter. Cute? Is that the right word for something with no lower jaw? It'll do.

Zombie Ogre, because if it was hard enough to kill first time around you need to practice.

Here's the Scarecrow from the shadowy shot above. Another Reaper one, this, pimped out with a bit more base than I usually do. Part of a Citadel Wood and some hacked up lolly sticks, anyway, which shows you how much effort I put into basing.

Some time ago, I painted this. Scaaaaary, I know - the ultimate in horrifying bad guys.

But what if he grew up?

Yeah, I fed him after midnight. This is a Reaper Greater Demon (probably a Balor, the DnD ripoff of the Balrog, and thus now pretty much every major demon in fantasy ever. Nice big model, though, especially on his scenic base, and likely to double as either a Daemon Prince or a Bloodthirster for my WoC army.

Dungeon Saga - Miniatures Review

November 1, 2015, 12:43 pm

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 Okay, I'll keep this brief.

With the box delivered and a little solo play test underway (yes, I'm that sad), I thought I'd put down some quick notes about the miniatures that come with Dungeon Saga. I'm focussing on the easiest ones to paint, the scythe-armed skellies, and I've done a speed paint tester to confirm some of my initial impressions on the models.

Details/Sculpts

In general, the models are well sculpted, with crisp lines and good detail. Cast seams can be scraped off pretty easily, although some of the models have such thin limbs that it's worth being very careful.

There's a couple of models that are pretty meh to look at (Ba'el, Ibrahim, Ally) but not many. Mostly they're good, characterful models. A bit monopose, but that's not a terrible problem considering there's so many different ones in the box.

Scale comparison with Reaper Bones (sword and shield guy on the left) and GW (or, well, MB games Heroquest era GW) on the right. Good for height, but a little on the flimsy-looking side perhaps?

Material

The plastic bends easily, and although it bends back easily too (use hot water first!), they aren't as robust as GW stuff or Reaper Bones.

They all have only one point of contact with the base. If you want to paint them, you'll need to glue the free foot down, otherwise they flap about all over the place as you poke them with the brush.

The manuals claim you can soak them in hot water and repose them, adding a bit of variation. This is true to an extent - reposing them is easy, the plastic takes a new form well. But if you want much variation, you end up twisting arms and legs into non-anatomical positions easily.

I'd say they're on the fragile side, but let's be honest - nerds like us tend to handle these things like Faberge Eggs most of the time, so I think they'll be fine.

Joy to Paint

A grim reaper skeleton isn't the most inspired sculpt, even if it is riffing on the classic Heroquest one. There are other more intricate and interesting models to do, though, and I'm looking forward to them.

I tend to go at models pretty hard with a drybrush, especially when I'm painting in a tearing hurry. The skeleton here took a little under 45 minutes, including drying time for the washes. It didn't like the energetic slapping about it took from the drybrush, though, and you can bend or potentially break a spindly bit if you aren't careful. Not robust, as I said!

They take paint easily, with Citadel Base coats and other layers sticking quickly and without hassle. And they come out pretty well, given that I was aiming for speed rather than anything fancy. The flagstone bases are nice, too, they add easy character.

Overall

I like them! Nothing staggeringly beautiful, but certainly nothing to worry about. Good looking, cheap models that will look good painted and stand up to careful use. I can't think of an appropriate or meaningful mark to give them, so let's say a very decent 75% and see if that helps you.

Yeah, I did all three in one fell swoop. Quick and effective, as I said!

Oddgit and Upchuck

November 2, 2015, 6:26 am

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So we SkypeBooted last week (battle report impending) and lending Kraken my greenskin army meant I was forced to hasten, not just the wyvern warboss, but also a couple of other extra models. Starting with two night goblin shaman:

In the end, he only fielded one of them: a cruel trick to make me paint faster.

This is the Forge World shaman (part of a set with the Great Cave Squig). It's certainly the most ambitious of the three - attempting to show a goblin infused (or more likely overloading) with the power of Gork.

Bad Moon rising.

It's a funny kind of model to get a handle on: it's certainly interesting, but somehow doesn't look quite right from any one angle. With the central figure prostrate and two 'faces', it's hard to see the model's centre of gravity.

Up and away.

I was reticent to attempt painting this model, because I didn't know exactly how to start. I wanted the 'smoke' to be greenish (with a hint of yellow, for the moonface) - but a different green to the shaman's flesh, so it would stand out.

In hindsight, maybe I should have just gone with different colour smoke.

I don't have the precise recipe for the smoke, since I just kept adding layers and washes until I was satisfied: white undercoat; Golden Yellow base; Drakenhof Nightshade wash; Green Ink glaze; alternating highlights of Snotling Green, Bleached Bone, White Scar, Shadow Grey; and a bit more Golden Yellow as needed.

A fistful of fungi

The rest of the painting was the usual for night goblins: Elysian Green base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Snotling Green highlights.

I didn't try any light source effects where the smoke touched the figure - there was so much green already in the mix, I didn't want to confuse it (and the model itself is very small, so there's not much room to play).

"By da power of Mork!"

All done, the model's growing on me. It certainly makes a standout addition to any goblin regiment, and I'll use this one as the Great Shaman, whenever I need to field one.

The second shaman was a little easier, as he was just a repaint: my stalwart spellcaster of so many years: Oddgit!

Pictured: an odd git.

'Oddgit' was the character from the 'Idol of Gork' campaign pack (some 5th Edition contretemps in the Border Princes). The design is a classic: the oversize features, the bones 'n pouchs; and - this is genius - a 'bad moon' sickle.

I left the gold tooth to look proper gangsta.

The repaint gave him a new base, a change of skin and replaced the red robes for a Dryad Bark brown. I also tried to change the tone of the yellow features - from reddish-yellow to greenish-yellow - by adding some Drakenhof Nightshade.

Itchy, sneaky and vindictive - everything a good goblin should be.

I think this may be my favourite night goblin character model (and there's plenty to choose from).

So that's my Little Waaagh! options taken care of (until the common goblin shamans come around).

WoffBoot: The Movie!

November 4, 2015, 5:57 am

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Having penned over 80 battle reports, we thought we'd have a try at making a video report. But, of course, we couldn't just make any old video...

So here we have a 2500 pt battle between Empire and Orcs & Goblins, as narrated by Brother 'Peachy' Toliver Carnehan and Brother Daniel 'Danny' Dravot, former Gunnery Sergeants in the Queen’s own Royal Loyal Light Infantry.

It was a fun battle - the losses were appalling (and so were the accents!)

Camera, Action, Lights!

It's All-Skype Fight Night!

For the record, these were the forces we deployed. So everything looked correct on the video, we decided not to use any proxies - this meant using only the armies at my disposal, so Kraken got to roll out my greenskins.

The Dogs of Tilea

• General of the Empire, Lorenzo -  Full Plate Armour. Sword of Striking. Enchanted Shield. Luckstone.
• Wizard Lord (Lore of Death), Bellemperia - Barded Warhorse. Talisman of Endurance
• Wizard Lord (Lore of Heavens), Sheikh Envac - Warhorse. Dispel Scroll
• Captain (Battle Standard), Fagiolo - Full Plate Armour. Shield. Griffon Banner
• Warrior Priest, Commissar Pendleton - Heavy Armour. Shield. White Cloak of Ulric
• Witch Hunter, Proctor "Deadeye" Jones - Brace of Pistols
• 40 x Spearmen - command group
• 20 x Crossbowmen (detachment)
• 20 x Halberdiers (detachment)
• 10 x Crossbowmen - musician
• 10 x Knights - command group
• 5 x Pistoliers - musician
• 20 x Flagellants 
• 1 x Cannon
• 1 x Cannon
• 1 x Volley Gun

Total: 2,500

Da Free Ameegoz

• Orc Warboss, Largozk da Grim - Great Weapon, Wyvern, Armour of Gork
• Savage Orc Warboss, Wazzla da Snaggly- War Boar, Crown of Command, spear, shield
• Night Goblin Warboss, Wuzzla da Nobbly - Great Cave Squig, Talisman of Preservation, Obsidian Blade, shield, light armour
• Savage Orc Great Shaman - War Boar, Lucky Shrunken Head
• Night Goblin Shaman - Dispel Scroll
• 30 Night Goblin Archers - Full Command, Short Bows, 3 Fanatics
• 20 Savage Orc Archers - Full Command, Bows
• 30 Savage Orcs - Full Command, Additional Hand Weapons, Big Stabbas, Big 'Uns
• 13 Savage Orc Boar Boyz - Full Command, Banner of Swiftness, Spears, Shields
• 6 Night Goblin Squig Hoppers
• 1 x Rock Lobber - Orc Bully
• 2 x Doom Divers

Total: 2,500

Locker Room Chat

So this is show business? It was a novelty to publish a battle report in a different way, and I've very pleased with the result.

In terms of effort expended, it probably takes as long, if not a little longer, than a written report: I had to take five times as many images as usual, and remember to keep taking them at crucial moments (rather than get overexcited and forget). It takes a while to format and order the images (and superimpose the highly-sophisticated special effects), but the recording of the report was a breeze - just 40 minutes recording live (and then about as long again to balance out the sound, fix the parts where Kraken's microphone dropped, and cut out all the times I said 'ummmm')

It's not my first foray into the world of Warhammer Voiceovers (I'm the Skaven), nor will it be my last! This was fun. Although I say that as the guy not doing any of the editing, clipping, chopping or posting, so there may be some bias in my opinion. (Kraken here, by the way, interrupting in bold). Perhaps I should get a better mic. And better internet.

In terms of the battle itself, I won't give anything away, other than to comment that my enforced painting of the greenskins makes for a really splendid army. I've played with just one tribe for so long, I'd forgotten how good a mish-mash of savages, goblins, war machines and monsters can look.

They certainly handle well too! Well balanced armies, Empire and OnG, both capable of versatile line-ups where it's hard to predict what you'll be up against. 

Finally, our first return to 8th Ed since the world ended. Just as fun as always, and I can't think of a better way to field 2500 pts in the time we had. The battlefield was more static - troops were generally going to fight the ones opposite them, and predictably, we spend more time flicking through the rulebooks.

Yes, our thoughts on that are near the end of the report. I haven't been missing 8th Ed particularly, but coming back to it was like slipping back into the hot tub after an invigorating swim in the nearby volcanic spa. No better, but comforting, cheery, and just as stimulating in a different way. 

It made for a longer game than usual, especially in the wake of our recent AoS, SAGA and Frostgrave efforts (I guess we'd have to try KoW to get a 'big battle' comparison), but a very satisfying one. I'll certainly retain it as an option.

Aye, we'll be back! Although our next report is likely to be something a bit Mantic...

The Bat Winged Loony Lobber

November 5, 2015, 3:37 pm

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a.k.a The Doom Diver. I've already made a customised version, but I can't believe it's taken me this long to sort out a proper one: the model, the rules and the fluff are equally awesome.

From the Wile E. Coyote school of artillery.

"...This technique was developed to provide greenskin tribes with a form of aerial reconnaissance. Early aeronauts were given bits of slate and chalk on which to sketch enemy troop dispositions. As few Goblins survived the rather sudden landing, this was felt to be the only way of recovering the information they had gleaned. Unfortunately the idea wasn't a great success as most slates were found to bear a hasily scrawled message along the lines of 'Yahooooo!' of Wheeeee!'"

Orcs & Goblins 6th Ed (when fluff was worth reading)

The actual are a pretty basic set: Goblin Green base, Green Ink wash and Nurgling Green highlights for the skintone; then various shades of brown (Zandri Dust, Balor Brown, Tallarn Sand) for the gear.

This wee chap with the hammer (the 'master gunner' I assume, since he makes the decision when to release) is either a very small goblin or a very large snotling.

Either way, he's borderline.

The other two goblins come as a set: I think they're supposed to come on a cavalry base, but my sense of tidiness made me put them on two glued-together 20mm bases, since that's what goblins come on.

... I then had to glue the entire thing on top of a cavalry base, when I realised that mounting my war machine on a 60mm base meant that they needed to raise up a step to 'hook' the launcher.

Of course, without the war machine, they just look like mimes.

For the machine itself, it was the usual mix of Tallern Sand + Brown Ink for the wood (although I think I threw a few different browns in there, to make it more ramshackle); plus Typhus Corrosion + Reza Rust for the metal parts.

One nice detail I hadn't noticed before was the bucket of grease hanging off the machine, and the well-greased runway for the bat-winged loony. I tried a mix of Spearstaff Brown (which is really a dirty yellow) and Blood for the Blood God to try and get a viscous-looking grease.

And, with all my goblin war machines, I'm going to try and include a snotling mascot. This one is a flag-waver, so presumably he's the one that says 'launch!'.

Maybe that makes HIM the master gunner?

Last, but not least, the 'template'. I'm not sure if Games Workshop have ever done this before or since, but this is the model that you definitely need to play - it doesn't form part of the machine or the crew, it gets placed over the target (it would be like saying you have lie down your actual giant model for a 'fallen giant' result).

Anyway, I magnetized his tummy, so he could be easily removed from the flying base, and gave him the same paintjob as the other Doom Divers: Mephiston Red jumpsuit with sporty white stripes up one side.

"I'm flying, Jack."

Apparently, they're awesome in 8th Edition (I can testify to this somewhat) and rubbish in Age of Sigmar. No matter, skinks gotta swim, gobbos gotta fly.

Up, up and away to the wild green yonder!

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EXT: Ruined Hut

November 7, 2015, 5:41 am

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 More ruins for my snowy bog theme. This time, the remains of a shack!

That burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp.

This is the result of some rather over-watered concrete my wife was doing some life casting with (infant feet, proper memorabilia stuff). "Can you do anything with this?" she asked, handing me a tub of grey slop. Of course I could!

I poured it onto a rough circle of corrugated cardboard, backed that with some blister pack plastic, and got busy with the lolly sticks. It took four days to dry to a point where I could handle it without snapping, as well as two coats of watered-down PVA to give it a bit of extra toughness. But it came out alright after that.

I'd used sticks from the local park as the knocked-down trees I favour, because they look a lot better than anything I can paint or model. Then I forgot to mask them when I sprayed it all black, and had to paint them anyway. Not too bad - Dryad Bark drybrushed with Steel Legion Drab and Underhive Ash, with the broken wood done in Zandri Desert with Agrax Earthshade.  It's not life, but it'll do.

Moral of the story - don't summon fire elementals in a wooden structure.

Once it was painted, I set fire to it.

Seriously! I know that's a daft thing to do, but I wasn't happy with the broken ends of the lolly sticks. I wanted it to look burned. It was only a partial success, as I was pretty tentative with the candle. Where I let it take, though, I got a nice charcoaly look that I probably could have done just using paint. But then I wouldn't have had such fun, crouched on the balcony like a pyro, dripping wax on the edges of the model by mistake. Covered that with snow, couldn't pick it off.

Elsewhere, some more of my Mantic haul is painted up.

Abyssal Dwarf Lesser Obsidian Golem #1

They're designed as Chaos Abyssal Dwarf rock monsters, and they've got a very natty black and lava paintjob on the website. I've got three, and one will probably end up being something like that. I thought I'd do something else for the others, and I started with a Frostgrave-style Ice Construct.

 Blues and brasses, plenty of bicarb snow and a lick of gloss for shine. Nice model! A bugger to assemble, though - Mantic plastic needs superglue, and the joints don't fit together specially well. Got there in the end, though!

It's A Long Way From Gorkamorka

November 9, 2015, 2:43 am

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Having painted up a Wyvern rider for our recent battle report, I figured I needed a Warboss on foot model (in the *unlikely* chance that the wyvern would get shot out from underneath him).

I mean, what are the odds of that happening?

I had a couple of Orc Warbosses to choose from, but as I'd spent all my painting time on the wyvern, I settled for repainting this Black Orc Big Boss as an acceptable substitute.

The model is a Gorkamorka Nob - back in the day, I'd spotted that you could buy the composite model without any guns, and so it could transition well into fantasy (the only stretch is that belt of bullets I've tried to make into a collection of teef).

That mace arm is such a bugger to rank up. This guy will be forever on the left flank.

The original paint job, as I recall, was pretty quick (I'll be putting it to the test when I get around to doing my Black Orc unit), mostly using the black undercoat to get the blackest black orc possible:

• Skin: Chaos Black undercoat, Dark Angels Green highlights
• Weapon blades: Chaos Black undercoat, Mithril Silver hightlights (subsequently added Typhus Corrosion and Reza Rust)
• Weapon hafts: Tallarn Sand, Brown Ink wash
• Armour: Chaos Black undercoat, Scab Red base
• Belts and straps: Balor Brown base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Boots: Balor Brown base, Chestnut Ink wash
• Gold accessories: Shining Gold base, Chestnut Ink wash, Shining Gold highlights

At some point, I'll get around to the other 40...

EXT: Fallen Statue

November 11, 2015, 12:49 am

≫ Next: It Was A Rock... Lobba!

≪ Previous: It's A Long Way From Gorkamorka

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The concrete gloop from the burned-out shack wasn't the only leftovers from the lifecasting session recently. We also had some spare parts.

Fauschlag

Is it weird and grotesque to make ruined statues out of chunks of your baby? Potentially. I like to think that I'm immortalising her in wargames, surely the life goal of any respectable parent.

There were two bits, discarded as the concrete hadn't settled into the mould properly and then had also come out so brittle that the casts broke as they were extracted. I glued them both to card bases, reinforced with plastic bottoms, then based them with PVA and sand, sprayed them black, drybrushed them up through various greys and flocked them.

The fist is damaged enough that it might take a second to spot what it is, particularly from some angles. The foot is better - I arranged the broken toes appropriately. Just don't count them, I may have gotten carried away.

All I need now is a broken head, to complete the illusion of a shattered colossus...

It Was A Rock... Lobba!

November 12, 2015, 2:08 am

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≪ Previous: EXT: Fallen Statue

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... and if that's got you humming the B-52s, then get yourself off and have a quick boogie. It's fine, I'll wait.

Ski-doo-be-dop!

The final element of my enforced speed-painting for Kraken was the Goblin Rock Lobba. I already had one of these painted, so it would theoretically be a quick rebasing. Although I tried my hardest to complicate it.

Our starting point. The horror.

Like all my war machines, I was going to move this onto a round base (no less than 60mm, as the footprint is massive).

This actually gave me less space to work with on the base (formerly it was on a chariot base - or rather, 2 x 50mm bases crudely taped together). So the spare rocks were removed, although I did find room for a little fungus.

Mushrooms grow best in dry, sunlit places, isn't that right?

Repainting the machine wasn't extensive: just touching up the chipped paint and adding a layer of rust (Typhus Corrosion + Reza Rust) to all the metal bits. I also added some glyphs to the rock, as it seemed appropriately gobliny.

I should mention at this point about how much I like the model - compared to the previous rock lobba (which was just a long arm on a basic A-frame), this one actually looks like it could work (in a very ramshackle way, of course). One of the high points of the 5th-6th Ed. greenskin range.

The snotling is helpfully pointing "that way!"

This kit already had a snotling attendant, so there was no need to add one of my own, I painted him up in the usual vivid green.

You may also notice, in the bottom-right corner, that the goblin cranking the machine has gone. This was because a) the base size no longer accommodated him and b) I may need to remove him as a wound counter. So I magnetized both war machine and goblin, and he now snaps on happily.

I spoke about the Doom Diver crew being the littlest goblin? I take it back: the one on the lever is the closest distinction between goblin and snotling. (I went with goblin)

The crew themselves got a quick makeover: Snotling Green highlights, to give them their own distinct skin tone; recovering the ubiquitous red cloth with Dawnstone, Balor Brown or Tarren Sand; making the unfortunate squig the same colour as my herds, and adding some glyphs to the rocks.

And finally, to push them all around: a bully!

"I'm a very wealthy man, Miss Steele, and I have expensive and absorbing hobbies."

I have a number of these bullies (mostly 40k runtherderz), waiting patiently for a war machine to dominate, but this one actually came with the Rock Lobba box, so I felt obliged to use him.

I was pushed for time (the evening before the battle report) to paint him, so I tried the usual tactic of 'paint it all in one session' - that session lasted over 2 hours, so it's still about half-speed.

So that's finished - and was completed in time for Kraken to rain down granite upon me,

Everybody's rockin', everybody's frugin'!

Tonight, on a very special post...

November 13, 2015, 12:56 am

≫ Next: Aim for the Black

≪ Previous: It Was A Rock... Lobba!

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Well, this all seems like splendid news (and remarkable that the too-good-to-be-true rumour preceding it actually turned out true),

Perhaps a new Necromunda game will finally goad me into painting my Escher gang. Mind you, I wouldn't pass up a Blood Bowl game either. Or maybe Epic.

Oh damn, GW, just shut up and take my money.

Aim for the Black

November 15, 2015, 1:39 pm

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≪ Previous: Tonight, on a very special post...

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Not for the Red

Yeah, it's Crypt Angels time!


Two more squads plus characters this week, and I shall get right on with it. Nothing much to say here, plus it's late and I ought to be sleeping, so just pics and occasional snark will have to do.

An Apothecary

Then the last of the standard Tech squaddies

Skull Squad, aptly named because their left shoulders all have skull imagery on them. Totally unlike every other GW model ever, then, a real stand-out for battlefield ID.

Then a veteran squad. To mark that they're older and wiser, pink robes for these guys, plus brass helmets and lots of blue gems on the backpacks.

They also have a chapter standard with them

The model originally had a Grey Knights moulded banner, a lovely piece with a knight stomping on a bull-horned demon, but I felt masochistic so I swapped it for a plain one and did some freehand. Coffin, wings, blood - so far, so gothic.

Bearers of the Vestments Veteran Squad- ready to hit the field

And a Captain for one of the companies, one Captain Eox

Everybody. Everybody in the house of love.

No fantasy stuff this time. Or no fantasy stuff right now, anyway, I'll save it for later in the week when General Stylus and I are hoping to try out another new board game.

Stikka Album

November 16, 2015, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Dungeon Saga - Solo Rules Review

≪ Previous: Aim for the Black

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... or are Stikkas meant to be archers? Well, for the purpose of a good pun, let's assume goblin spears are the ones they call 'Stikkas'

You find a good pun, you Stikk to it.

This is the second of my Night Goblin originals. They served me well for many 6th Ed battles, but as with the archers, the time has come to repaint them.

Also like the archers, it took a hell of a lot longer than I thought - mostly because I had to dance around all the detailing when I was giving them completely new skin tones.

As before, the skin was made considerably more pasty: Elysian Green base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash and Snotling Green highlights.

Brown Ink to darken the spear hafts, and my new favourite rust-maker (Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust) to dirty up the blades.

One thing that didn't sit right with me was the shields: I love the 'bad moon' motif, but I couldn't justify why a ragged bunch of gobbos would all have the identical, mass-produced, three-dimensional shields.

After much deliberation (mainly along the lines of, 'bollocks, how long is this going to take?'), I decided to go for it: popped off all the old shields and prepared an assortment of random ones.

There are some wooden boards in there, plain rounds, dwarf shields, empire shields, skaven shields (since I figured they'd pick up anything they found - elven shields excepted. Nasty elves). I hacked chunks out of most of them with clippers, rusted 'em good, then painted 'bad moons' over the top, to look like crude daubings.

(it helps that my freehand is pretty crude to start with)

Speaking of bad moons, I jazzed up the banner before I finished: a few more details on the face and a shimmering glow around the edges.

And, as with my other unit of 30, I retired 5 models so I would have room for a unit filler - so there's still that to come before I can call this one done!

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Dungeon Saga - Solo Rules Review

November 19, 2015, 11:30 am

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Playing by myself? Yeah, I'm that sad.



Actually, solo rules were quite a draw for me when it came to Mantic's Dungeon Saga Kickstarter last year. Way back when I was a teenager, Advanced Heroquest was not generally the cup of tea of my friends or family. Luckily, my nerdy hobby was saved by the solo play rules and random dungeon generator, which was an integral part of that game,

So I took a crack at the rules in the box, quite excitedly. It's never the same, playing on yer tod, but it can pass a dark winter night quite well from time to time. Living in Sweden gives me a good deal of those. So what are the rules for random dungeons and solo play and do they work?

Just to explain the photos - I didn't quite stoop to taking pictures of my solo ventures into the game, and I also didn't want to write up a painting guide to the Dungeon Saga furniture set I've just painted. This is a combined post, with the odd bit of antique or kitbashed Heroquest creeping in. I won't bore you with how many shades of brown and grey I used (feel free to ask if you're really desperate to know), but I will say this: it was a slog, but the results are worth it. Good models to paint.

AIm

The solo rules, called the AI rules, were written up not just for the mateless wonders like me to play - you can also use them to play cooperatively as a team of heroes against a playerless bad guy. I like this idea, cooperative play is generally a big deal in games these days. This is because it's fun. Taking on the evil dark with your chums is a blast, as a rule, and sometimes nobody wants to be minion controller for the players power trip.

The random dungeon generator sets out to give you the equivalent of playing through a planned mission without knowing what is around the next corner. Again, it's trying to give you the thrill of playing against a human baddy with traps and tricks up his sleeve.

So the idea of having them in the game, I am totally behind. Increased gameplay options, plus replayability - nice! Both are included in the expanded rules for the game, the Adventurer's Companion, sold separately to the core game. Or included (sort of) with the Kickstarter package.

How It Works

In the normal game, the Overlord player has a deck of cards that allow him to activate extra minions in his own turn or interrupt the player turns with extra effects.

The AI controller works by drawing cards from a deck. The cards tell you if a special effect is triggered, or if the hero players' turns are interrupted. And then they tell you how many monsters move, and give you an algorithm to follow in order to achieve an effect.

The random dungeon generator works in a similar deck'o'cards way. Each of the tile sets that exists for the game has a few cards with small chunks of premapped dungeon on them. You create a deck from the tile options you want and pull one out. The card also shows dungeon furniture, potential locations for monsters and where the exits might lie. When (if) you reach the exit, you pull the next card and add on the next section.

Does It Work?

So far, so good. Good ideas realised out with simple rules. Playing them, however, isn't quite as simple.

AI rules first. After each player's turn, draw a card to see if the AI interrupts. Most of the time it won't, so there's a lot of card flipping for little effect. In the AI's actual turn, flip two cards. Each one gives you a number of monsters to move and a rough objective they currently have.

There's a few different objectives, from blocking the heroes' route through the dungeon to taking down a vulnerable hero. Not bad - a lot of the Overlord's game in Dungeon Saga is about preventing the heroes moving forward. Most games are on a timer, and playing a delaying game is an important tactic. Picking off outliers or bringing weight of numbers to bear are other ideas, and it's nice to see that the aim of the AI is to provide a sneaky, varied game to a robot opponent.

Most of the time, though, it gets lost in a back-and-forth of checking in tables. The problem is that the AI card is just the beginning.

Suppose your monsters are currently being sent to attack the most vulnerable hero. First, you calculate which of the heroes that is by assigning a Threat rating to each hero. A bit of maths later, you find that this is Hero Level, plus any modifiers from the objective on the card, plus any modifiers for the character of various monsters. Most of these numbers are given on one page, but the monster personality factor is listed on another page of the rules, and way the precise objective should play out is on another.

So I found myself flipping between three or four pages, trying to work out what the rules were suggesting I do. A lot of the time, I'd have been quicker and happier just making the assumption I was trying to stop the heroes as effectively as possible, and trying to do that. If I wanted the random special effects shock factor, that would be harder to do. I'd settle with drawing random cards from the normal Overlord deck instead.

I basically found the AI cards a little confusing to understand or implement, although I can see that would improve with practice. My first instinct is that I wouldn't bother playing enough to learn them fluently, though.

Lost in the Dark

The Random Dungeon generator is better. Clearer and simpler, it at least gives you a quick and easy way to stick the tiles from the box together in interesting ways. There are a lot of random cards, enough that the preset configurations aren't going to repeat often enough to bother you.

The tiles in the box are also a lot of interesting, unusual shapes - twisting tunnels, chicanes and corners that really play well to the core mechanic of Dungeon Saga. That is this race against time, that the heroes usually have a set number of turns to achieve victory. Choke points abound.

Once again, there's a 'but' coming from me, though.

First, I was worried I was going to miss the old Advanced Heroquest random generator tables. They wouldn't work well with these dungeon tiles, though. Okay, they gave you limitless wandering in linear corridors and square rooms, often empty and echoing. Dungeon Saga is not that game. It does short, sharp blasts of room-to-room combat, not the slow journey through the random underdark. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste, they both perform well in delivering their particular flavour.

What I don't like is the system for generating contents. The card you draw shows you where to put furniture and monsters. It also gives you a points value for monsters, which you are supposed to spend on a single enemy type. If I understand the rules right, not just single type as in 'all undead' or 'all orcs' - all skeleton archers, for example, or all goblin warriors.

It's a bit restrictive, I found. It's your choice, at least, but it also requires page turning as you look up the points values in the bestiary and compare them with what's on your card.

The dungeon cards also randomly generate your mission in the dungeon. This could be 'beat a random local boss', who you have to create pre-delve, or 'get to a specific spot within a time limit', or so on. Nice variations, but very low on flavour text. 'Get to the exit squares in eight turns' is hardly going to compare to 'get the One Ring to the Crack of Doom', and to be fair, it isn't trying to. It's solo play, you have to do the fluffing yourself, sadly.

Having a time limit is still the order of the day, though, with a random dungeon allowing only a certain number of AI turns before your time is out. That's not a good mix. The campaign missions Dungeon Saga comes with are pretty well play tested, the layout and objectives are neatly balanced. If your mission can be made near-impossible by bad luck on the card turns, there's a strong risk of frustrating games that go nowhere.

Man Solo

Enough with the dry analysis, though - time to get busy!

I tried out the rules by taking a random draw of pre-generated starter characters against a random pregenerated boss. Paladin, Wizard, Barbarian and Dwarf against Mortibris the Necromancer is what I got, so undead to fight against.

The mission turned out to be 'kill a boss', and I had eight turns flat to do it in. There's always a chance a boss will turn up in every new chunk of dungeon you reach after the first, but eight turns wasn't much. I'd have to get in deep fast, and then take down a fairly tough boss with low level heroes, a tall order.

The dungeon I got was hard but fair. The opening section had a series of interlinked rooms with plenty of chests and loot around, but it was all guarded. I could either try taking my time to gear up or power past the temptations to get to my foe.

In the event, I tried to do both and got hopelessly bogged down on the dwarven revenant guard! The Paladin got stuck and then left behind. And then even pretty dog-eared as the revenant beat down on him.

I'd chosen to ignore the usual monster-laying rules (not a fair test, I know, but with the undead you technically can't combine their Pile of Bones rule with any other monsters because a Pile of Bones is a separate entry in the Bestiary. Weak). There was also a ghost and some skeletons, then quickly quite a lot more skeletons - Undead Overlords can raise a lot of chaff fast from bone piles. Other than the revenant, none were really a threat, but it took a while getting past a ghost and a few skeletons. By the time I had the next door open, I only had two turns left to play!

Luck smiled on me. The next section did in fact contain Mortibris, along with an armoured zombie bodyguard. The AI deck very cannily sent these in to totally block my advance along a narrow corridor, and the damn things were so tough that my time easily ran out before I got anywhere near the boss.

So I ignored the time limit and played on! After a long hard grind through the meat shield, however, the heroes were in no state to tackle the Necromancer. His spells were easily enough to cripple the weakened Barbarian, and with even one hero down, the game is lost.

Verdict

Did I enjoy it? Reasonably well, I'd say. As already mentioned, I didn't like the AI rules particularly, they were cumbersome and confusing. I was already skimping on them and making my own decisions by the end of one game. Although I'm an impatient man, I think that simpler rules would have been better, especially with a catch-all 'just do something fun' proviso as a more central tenet. It is in the rules, actually, but only as a sidebar after all the maths.

For the Random Dungeon generator, I'd rather have seen a random monster table, either dice controlled or linked to the Dungeon Deck card draw, rather than the rather weak and limited points spend system. Getting a clear result, including mixed monster packs, would be faster and probably more fun.

With that proviso, though, I thought that this part of the system works quite well. Nowhere near as well as the premade missions, though, and not on a par with Advanced Heroquest, my yardstick here. In that game, the random dungeon was an integral part. This feels like something tacked on and less enjoyable. More like the old random Space Hulk generator in the original Deathwing expansion, if that helps anybody. I never had much love for that, and although this is much better, it still feels disappointing.

Perhaps it's a lot more fun with cooperative play? Maybe. I think if I manage to lure any actual humans into playing range for this game, I'd much rather play the excellent campaigns in the main game than this crapshoot. Obviously, that's not surprising! Boardgames are social games, on the whole, and you lose a lot without company.

Overall, I'd probably play it again though. It was fun, if frustrating, and doing it again I'd know what I'd want to change for my own personal tastes to be satisfied. I'm disappointed to say that I won't be hurrying to take it out for that second round though, there's other things I'd rather do for now.

Paint more tables, for example...

Final Random Score Generator - 3/5

Frostgrave II - A Frosty Grave

November 20, 2015, 3:43 pm

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I've Got Frostbite!
It's All Skype Fight Night!

Back to the snowy city of Felstad for a second round of wizardly duelling! I, Kraken,

and I, Stylus,

will be battling our warbands as we squabble over the riches within a newly-thawed Mausoleum. Can its prizes be wrenched from the knucklebones of those guarding it?

Loadout

We'll be taking our warbands from last time out again. My Necromancer, 'Gold' Dulgur, won the first round. Along with new henchmen and Stylus's injuries from last time, I have a distinct numerical advantage, as well as a big, tough Barbarian to deploy!

Goldie is now a she, since I finished the paintjob on the model that played apprentice last time. Her new apprentice is Mr Bones on the extreme left, and after injuries from last time, I was packing two thugs, two thieves, a crossbowman, an archer, a big dog and an even bigger Barbarian.

Slothslayer's Proxies - two archers, three goblin thugs, an apprentice and a treasure hunter. The Man-at-Arms was actually injured, but managed to make the team photo anyway.

Mission

The Mausoleum beckons - there's a big square building in the middle of the table, with extra big treasure chests on each corner. Not only are there a few skeletons lurking nearby guarding it, but it also spews out an extra one every turn. You can get big bucks here, but you'll want to do it fast, before the unending skeletons take their toll...

Here's our table. The cardboard box in the middle is the Mausoleum, topped with a big statue and with wheelchair access to the roof along the ramps to either corner. The big payday chests are on the high corners where the ramps touch, and the low ones without ramps.

We're also using the Wandering Monsters, Badly Wounded and Critical Hits rules, as we're feeling all cocky after a single match played. Bring on the complex state of play!

Here's the table from another angle. Before we started, we also got to deploy a pair of skeletons each - one ended up lurking just off the middle of each deployment zone, with one outlier in the citadel wood and another guarding the ramp access to the left-hand corner seen above.

Blow-by-Blow Action Report

No maps this time out, for which I must apologise! I was a bit fluey on the night of the game, and discovered I'd forgotten most of the specifics when I came down to write it the following evening.

I deployed in two broad groups, The Necromancer with two thieves and an archer taking the middle of the left-hand edge and the Apprentice taking the Barbarian and two thugs from the upper story of the Dreadstone Blight towards the Mausoleum roof. I had a lone crossbowman on the top of this same tower, and a lone wolf out in the swamps, figuring these two could either snipe or close quickly with threats, thus making them capable of acting by themselves.

This hastily photoshopped image has the deployment scrawled in. Red blobs are the Necromancer's guys, blue is the Soothsayer. Yellow rings are the treasure chests, lime green with a dark red ring is a wandering skeleton. Thanks, technology.

The Necromancer's apprentice, Barbarian and Thug tag team. Plus sniping support.

With only eight members of my depleted warband, I could split evenly between spellcasters. The Soothsayer took the treasure hunter, archer and thug into the ruins by the nearest treasure, ready for a quick dash. The Apprentice had an archer and two thugs behind the lone tree, ready to leap out and deal with the skeleton.

Soothsayer's Apprentice in Daring Deployment Scandal

Soothsayer and team, ready for action

Turn 1

I got a lot of very high rolls for initiative for the first half of the game, and stole a lot of marches. My Necromancer started by sending his trio forwards and engaging the skeleton just ahead.

Down you go, boney.

The thugs had no problems hacking it apart, and then the archer shot down the one guarding the bridge, leaving the way clear for the Apprentice. A good start, marred by my wizard's attempt to cast Elemental Shield, which merely hurt himself instead.

My Soothsayer dashed forward (rather recklessly in hindsight, given I was outnumbered and half my party had bows) and the Treasure Hunter made it to the first treasure chest. Opening it trigged the first our special rules - wandering monsters! Appropriately, I rolled for a pair of skeletons which fortunately appeared on Kraken's board edge.

I then continued my good start by actually managing to get off a spell - Mind Control - and take over one of the Nercomancer's thieves. Sadly, he had already moved this turn, so I could get no mileage from him, but it was all I could see.

My Apprentice sent his group forwards down the bridge, and then also muffed an attempt to cast a Bone Dart at the only target he could see, the skeleton by the woods. The crossbowman also later missed the same shot.

As for my Apprentice, having seen the ease with which Kraken's boys despatched the skeletons, sent a couple of Thugs into the undead sentry before us. Unfortunately, this one must have been taking calcium supplements in life, because it's tough old bones prove more than a match for my goons, who come off considerably worse for wear.

I think my Apprentice then flubs something easy, like Awareness.

Unkillable Undead Champion

Traitors in my midst already? Lucky I had a warhound to sniff them out. I pounced the big dog on to the mind controlled thief, and started tearing, removing half the turncoat's wounds. Alas, it was a drawn combat, which means we both hit simultaneously, and the wolf was wounded too.

You smell like betrayal.

Wandering monsters always go last, and follow an AI routine that tells them how to act. The two newcomers rushed my archer, who amazingly managed to put them both down! The one off in the woods couldn't see anyone, so pottered around in a random direction for a bit until he could, then set off towards the Soothsayer's Apprentice.

The heroic one guarding the altar killed one of the Soothsayer's Apprentice thugs facing him, and new one appeared on the north side of the Mausoleum.

Turn 2

I got the jump on Stylus again, and my Wizard sprang his team into action. The loyal thief ran and grabbed the big spangly treasure chest on the nearest corner, with the Necromancer casting Leap and going up on the roof of the mausoleum, ready to join up with the Apprentice.

The warhound continued trying to eat the thief, but got put down for his pains. At least that left him wide open for a shot from the archer, who killed him. Good, I had dealt with the threat from within! Which of course left me two men down.

Ah, my bewitched minion didn't last long. Still there are plenty more where that came from - I cast Mind Control again and ensnare the other Thief (who has also just moved - I'm having no luck going second here). 

Elsewhere, my Treasure Hunter picks up his own find and ducks into cover, while my Soothsayer leads remaining Thug and Archer to the corner of the Mausoleum.

My Apprentice powered forwards with his team, chucking a Bone Dart at the second disloyal Thief in the process. It knocked off a few wounds. Nothing serious, just a stern reminder of how I deal with wavering commitment to the team. One of the Thugs secured a second super treasure chest.

Back at the indestructible skeleton, my Apprentice charges in to relieve the one surviving Thug. We manage to remove it, but I lose the Thug in the process. Meanwhile, the Archer is appointed our treasure-recoverer and sent off to secure the ground-level chest at the Mausoleum.

My Crossbowman had a long shot at the archer sneaking about at the far corner of the Mausoleum, but all that cover made him too hard to hit.

There was only one skeleton left, and it had just enough move to reach but not actually attack the Soothsayer's Apprentice. And then there was another one on the table suddenly, popping right out next to help its pal, right in the middle of Stylus's plans. Bah.

"Against the children of the hydra's teeth there is no protection..."

Turn 3

My long run of initiative stealing had finally failed me, and the Soothsayer and his team were already grabbing the other roof treasures. My Necromancer advanced and fluffed another Bone Dart, leaving himself hurt and a bit exposed. He took the Barbarian and a Thug with him, taking them off the Apprentice's hands, although neither was in range to engage anything.

My Soothsayer could forsee that he was about to be out-matched on the rooftop, and so lingered at the back, covering the slow retreat of the laden Treasure Hunter, and sending the Archer and Thug forward to retrieve the rooftop chest.

The Apprentice rushed towards the side of his stricken master, using the central statue for cover, and managed a pretty effective Bone Dart on the nearest enemy Thug.

The Soothsayer's Apprentice bopped the skeleton who had appeared to attack him. I may have then burned three whole wounds to achieve a Mind Control on the Barbarian - who immediately resisted its effect. The Archer reaches the ground-level treasure chest and secures it.

The minions phase saw a lot of action, as we both had models out of command range by now. After my Crossbowman failed to shoot the Archer again, I got a boss treasure chest a little nearer my edge courtesy of the Thug bearing it.

My mind-controlled thief still has a piece of treasure in its possession, so I immediately get the Thief to thieve it, and drag it slowly towards me. Sadly, he then realises his perfidy, and throws off the spell.

Back on the rooftop, my Archer finally gets off a cracking arrow on the Necromancer (I'd been missing shots all game) and sticks him for most of his wounds.

More skeletons tried mugging various people, and got caned for their efforts. All the new ones that had shown up so far had appeared nearest the Soothsayer's band. This was hilarious, of course, but I couldn't help but suspect I would get my comeuppance shortly.

Shots Fired!

Dirty double-crossing thief.

Turn 4

As Gold Dolgur ordered the Barbarian in against the treasure-carrying Thug, he also tried a Bone Dart snipe against the enemy Apprentice. Fool! His wounds were so severe, he got an extra penalty for spellcasting now.

That meant he screwed it up, and that meant he was out of both wounds and therefore the game. Curses! At least the Barbarian made a red smear out of the Thug.

My third attempt to bring the Necromancer's Thief onto my side goes very badly and I take a lot of wounds for my failure. Suddenly finding myself in the middle of the field, without any minions, and facing a number of enemy combatants, I swig a Potion of Invulnerability to try and last out the turn. 

My Apprentice gets to go first for a change, and rushed in to help the Archer against the newly-arrived skeleton. Working together, we manage to see it off.

Behind you!

Masterless, I now sent the Apprentice to plug the gap his master had left. In keeping with his fallen tutor's example, he screwed up another Bone Dart and lost some wounds. Modern education, I tell you, the Tories don't care how shit it is as long as it's private.

All the remaining minions were mine by this point! Hurrah. I could make up for the fact I no longer had a Wizard phase. The Barbarian and Thug in the middle split up, with the Barbarian heading for the Soothsayer's Apprentice and the Thug (who was wounded somehow by this stage) going for Slothsayer himself.

I also remembered I still had that lone archer, and he went and grabbed the normal treasure counter out on the north side.

Turn 5 Onwards

The next few turns saw a series of messy combats! I get a bit vague at this point, probably due to my Wizard being out of the game.

Although Slothsayer was nearly tag-teamed by the Thief and the Thug, a wandering skeleton from the Mausoleum managed to interrupt my fun. In a messy combat, the Soothsayer took out the Thug, the Thief took out the Skeleton and then the enemy wizard, and then grabbed the chest and started dragging it.

That treacherous thief! Doing what he's supposed to do.

The Barbarian arrived at the Soothsayer's Apprentice's party, and promptly started breaking heads. He kept getting pushed away and scragged by roaming skeletons, but eventually got a good hit in.

The Apprentice was basically running interference for the Archer at this point, trying to get that treasure chest home.

We did discover an amusing mechanic whereby my Apprentice (who had also been obliged to quaff a Potion of Invulnerability) could 'push back' the Barbarian into a skeleton who was creeping up behind it. The skeleton was duly smashed, but there you go.

Heads!

The Necromancer's Apprentice made good use of the Leap spell to carry the nearby Treasure counter all the way off my board edge, which was good.

Although my surviving thief was now being covered by his Archer comrade, carrying the chest meant he was too slow to avoid a stream of skeletons from the Mausoleum. They quickly caught and killed him, reclaiming their gold, so the Archer legged it.

I think you'll find this belongs to me, thanks.

My crossbowman had nothing to shoot at, but no way down from his tower either. A problem I also discovered I had with the Thug who'd lugged a treasure counter all the way to the lower storey. In the end, I decided he needed to get it home, so he jumped out of a window. It left him badly wounded, but still able to limp home with the goods.

My own team was somewhat decimated (or whatever the mathematical term is for when 7 out of your 8 guys get splattered). Between the Barbarian and even more skeletons, both Apprentice and Archer got skragged.

The only member to get out of there in one piece was the Treasure Hunter, who very sensibly got in early and got out quick.

Aftermath

Another win for the Necromancer! I'd taken more treasure home, and still had men standing on the field as the final Soothsayerites fell. Rubbing my dirty hands with glee, I started resolving the injuries I'd taken.

At which point I discovered that 'Gold' Dolgur had taken his philosophy of death to its logical conclusion, and was going to be staying in the Mausoleum permanently.

If your wizard is below a certain level (ten), this means you're best off starting with a new band. And so I will be for our next session! All that experience and loot wasted, simply because I'd been massively slapdash about keeping my wizard off the front lines and alive unlucky. Rats.

I was a little downcast, obviously - it doesn't take long to get attached to a character in a campaign. Looking at the options now open to me, I was quite pleased to have another go at Warband creation. The two games played have given me a better idea of what works, and I've got a new idea to try out for the next game. Slothsayer, we're coming for you...

So ... I won? It doesn't feel like I won, having secured only one bit of treasure and been thoroughly curb-stomped by enemy warbands and the undead alike. As it happens, in the campaign phase, I got off quite lightly, losing only a single Archer to death, and the rest of my chaps making a full recovery.

With two of my injured warband back off the injury bench, I was almost back to full-strength. I decided to fill in the tenth and final slot by hiring the Barbarian that had smacked me about so roundly. I could do with some more muscle in the warband, he had clearly impressed in his audition, and now the Necromancer was dead, what better way to rub Kraken's nose in it than to hire his former underling?

Other than that, I didn't advance much - one treasure didn't bring me much in the way of loot, and my warband didn't do much worthy of experience. I managed to scrape together enough to go up one level - using it to make Mind Control easier, since I'd like to be good at something.

I got fairly unlucky with the skeletons, but that's the scenario. Tactically, I clearly blundered by charging forward with inferior numbers against superior foes. I should think about having the Wizard and Apprentice parties support each other too - they were too quickly isolated and destroyed.

I do feel bad for the crappy luck that cost Kraken his Necromancer, although I do envy the fresh start he gets to make. Having only a couple of games, I would definitely have gone for more movement-based spells, and picked a greater number of low-casting ones, however meagre they seemed. As it is, I'm tending to rely on a couple of stalwarts (you may have noticed the ubiquity of Mind Control) through lack of options.

Still, I'm sure I won't have to wait long - the way I'm playing, my wizard will soon be joining his rival in his frosty grave.

Dungeon Saga Heroes - Your Quest Begins Here!

November 21, 2015, 6:24 am

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"Enter, stranger...."

In a wild departure from fantasy dwarf designs, this one is a grumpy-looking doorstop.

Despite having a SkypeQuest lined up with Kraken in the near future, I hadn't intended to paint any of my Dungeon Quest models. But I started to tinker with a few and realised - these things are fantastic to paint!

They're certainly on the smaller side of the 25mm scale - my SAGA guys look burly next to them, but they're just about on par with LoTR miniatures. But apart from painting most of the areas with a fine detail brush, it wasn't a problem.

We Will Rock You

For the elf, I wanted to try something different from my usual pale flesh tones - I used Drakenhof Nightshade as the wash, then highlighted with Ushabi Bone. I'm quite happy with the effect: more like the elves of Hellboy II, and less just like a slender-looking human archer.

Named 'Madriga', presumably for her early Baroque technique.

This bruiser is the standout hero for me (isn't it always the barbarian in these games?) - good stance, great expression. My only complaint is the amount of skulls he is wearing: a skull shoulderpad is good and characterful; a pair of skull kneepads seems less so; a skull attached to the back of your axe just makes me think it's a satire on certain other miniature companies.

"What is best in life? Apart from a lot of skulls, obviously."

As I was saying, these miniatures surprised me with how well they take paint and hold detail. Working up from a black undercoat, I was also able to whizz through them pretty efficiently (perhaps less than an hour apiece).

When I initially unboxed my Dungeon Saga pledge, and looked at the blue plastic models, I rated them B+, but to be honest, if all the miniatures are this quality, they're worth the cost of the Kickstarter by themselves.

And for some fun, I dug out the models that inspired this game - my old HeroQuest boys, as painted by 11-year-old me with my Airfix Enamels.

One of these dwarfs dwarfing the other.

Everybody, yeah yeah. Rock your body, yeah yeah.

Elvish has left the building.

By the Power of Humbrol!

So no real difference, as you can see.

Dungeon Saga Evil Dead - Ghosties and Ghoulies (and Zombies)

November 26, 2015, 4:12 am

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Now the heroes are painted for this dungeon bash, it's time to give them something to bash!

The Fellowship of the Ring has seen better days.

Rise up, deadies!

As with the dungeon heroes, this started off with a bit of tinkering, and ended up painting the whole set. I'll take back my 'only average' grade at the unboxing - they're great plastic minis, and I hope the expansion sets hold up as well.

Watch out, Jason.

The only tricky part I found with the skeletons was when to lay off the drybrushing (I worked up from Chaos Black undercoat > Mournfang Brown > Ushabi Bone). I wanted to be sure I was picking out all the bones, but didn't want to look like I'd laid on the final highlight too thick, In the end, I gave it another wash of Agrax Earthshade to bring it back down.

A good archer has a keen eye (socket).

This archer probably works least well in the set - he's very flat, and when you point him in the direction he's facing, there's almost nothing to see. It didn't help that I painted him in very muted colours, which practically blend with his bones - but I've got a couple more attempts to get it right.

Do skeletons have much use for agricultural tools?

The classic 'skeleton reaper' - glad they included this one, and not just because it was a doddle to paint.

Even the undead have better abs than me.

Your standard zombie - I think these are the first undead miniatures I've painted (aside from murdering my HeroQuest set years ago).

I had a great time with them, not least because I got to take on several different models at once (quite a change when I usually find myself working on uniform Warhammer regiments in groups of 20-30).

This one seems more a ghoul than a zombie: note the use of tools and lack of trousers.

I went with the tradition rotting green flesh for the zombies: a base of Snotling Green, Drakenhof Nightshade wash and Ushabi Bone highlights.

I dotted around the torn flesh with Blood for the Blood God, then swiped it across some likely areas. I didn't want to drown them in gore, but zombies are zombies.

A Faulty Basilean

Here's a nice change: a zombie who was wearing something more than tattered clothing when he turned. I copied the Basilean uniform from the rulebook, since I like the idea that these paragons can also be turned with a bit of voodoo.

The beard is always last to decompose.

And here's something you can't get enough of: undead from races other than men. There's not a lot of skeleton on view for the Dwarf Revenant (and fair enough, since a dwarf without the paraphernalia is just a short human skeleton) , but it strikes a nice balance.

The painting challenge was trying to ensure that everything - beard, bones, armour - didn't just blend in with each other. After trying a few colours, I went with a very ginger beard, a very bronze breastplate, rusty iron armour and dirty red + muddy brown robes. I think it manages to keep everything matching, while still making it clear what is what.

"Now that the Nazgul and Dementor work has dried up, I just do Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come at panto."

This ghost was nothing but drybrushing. I didn't want the black robes shown in the artwork, as I wanted a more 'spooky bedsheet' type. I worked up from Chaos Black > Space Wolf Grey > Skull White, with a touch of Caledor Sky in between, to add a blue hue.

"Mr Rock will see you now!"

Finally the big bruiser of the set: a zombie troll. Another race to add to the melting pot, but it does pose questions: can they still regenerate? vomit? are the still stupid? And if not, what makes them different from, say, a zombie ogre?

Anyway, I went with a greener starting point than for the zombie humans: Elysian Green, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Snotling Green highlights, Ushabi Bone highlights. After than, some Blood for the Blood God to fill in his guts and he was all done.

Night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade.

All in all, It was a fun set (enough to make me cast an eye over other deadies - maybe a wee Age of Sigmar warband, or Frostgrave Necromancer's retinue).  I'm looking forward to painting up the second batch, maybe in tandem with the leaders this time. Maybe the third set (assuming it gets here) will be given over to conversions.

But that's enough of painting: the next Dungeon Saga update will involve some dice being rolled!

Dungeon Saga II - Seeing Triple

November 27, 2015, 12:47 pm

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Stylus is right, these are good models to paint! After getting the first batch of furniture out of the way (yeah, there's more, no, I'm not looking forward to it), I was pretty eager to get the core set down.

So here's a non-core set model, straight off - another of the Abyssal Dwarf Lesser Obsidisan Golems. This one is painted up more as an Earth Elemental/Generic Construct, though. Good sculpts, they turn out well in different paint schemes. Bit of a shame the pose is a bit clumpy, but I guess it's fair enough for a stompy fantasy robot.

We're slowing gearing up for a Skype Night session of Dungeon Saga, with an all-star cast of generals signing up. Paint fetishist that I am, I don't want to play the game without painted kit, so I'm racing through the models I need for the first few levels.

And I'm pretty much done, actually! There's one more I might feasibly need, but I strongly suspect my acrylic frenzy won't wear off until I've got a full core set under the slap.

As Stylus has already noted, these are a joy to paint. I went with white undercoats and used thinned-out base colours to get an initial highlight, then shaded and drybrushed as usual before the final details went on.

Some of them look better than others. The skeletons, particularly, suffered from too much white in the final drybrush. The archers look like they're wearing skull masks over their skulls, like an underfed backing group for the Phantom of the Opera.

In dreams he sings to us...

Doing them all in the same colours would be quicker, I know. It would also make me irritable every time I looked at them. If some of these have better schemes than others, I'm willing to pay the price for keeping them varied. 

Death - the ultimate equal opportunities employer

Same for the heroes - no adherence to official paint schemes here. I take full responsibility for the clashing titans below.

Planor - his face has come out badly, his red robes need a bit more layering and this photo misses the nice lava base (which came out much better than the rest of him), so I may come back to him. Certainly tabletop ready, at least.

Beardin the Dwarf - nothing too outlandish here and probably the closest to the suggested character scheme

Hordin and Gnasher are Kickstarter bonus figures, a Dwarven Landlord and his throwing mastiff. It's not really modelled that way, but I decided I could just about get away with painting him so it looks like he's using his beard plait to clean the tankard.

Burlap the Barbarian. I broke one of the horns off his axe during unboxing, somehow, and then lost it. This explains why he's looking so pissed off.

Drow paint for elven archer Virelai, so she looks proper foreign

 

 So just the Revenants, Ghosts, Zombie Trolls and Evil Characters left to do!

And then the same all over again for the second copy in the cupboard. And all three expansion sets. And all the Kickstarter Exclusive cobblers. Roll on next December.