Zona Alfa: One Crew Done!

Well, it's taken long enough but I finally finished my first crew for Zona Alfa!  Huzzah!!!  The last man for the crew is Chatterbox with his friendly LMG.

And with that, it means that it's time to start working on getting a board together so I can actually start heading out into the Zone.  I have decided to shelf the Southwestern Exclusion Zone idea for now, just because I have terrain that I can already use for a more temperate region.  Where will it be set?  No idea, but it will be somewhere green!  I do want to get some deciduous trees as all I have right now are the old standby Christmas pine trees.  At some point I want to make these look... well, like they aren't covered with crusty toothpaste, but for now they will work.  I'm also going to focus on a more rustic setting so I'm going to break out my Battle Systems fantasy village to get some quick country terrain.

I do need to also throw together some of the Zone floral that I'd picked up months ago.  It's literally right next to me in the hotel room, just waiting for me to finally throw it together.  I'm thinking that will be on the table for next week, depending on when my Brush Fu order comes in.  I missed out on being able to leave a review for my first order because I didn't realize that there was a limited window for leaving reviews, and I'd like to avoid that this time.  Barring that (and work commitments... and... believe it or not... college... because I've decided that it's finally time to get that piece of paper), the Zone terrain is at the top of the list.  Until next time...

Zona Alfa: First Crew Almost Done!

I managed to get a quick paint scheme on a couple more of the members of my Zona Alfa crew.  First up we have Potshot.

For his scheme, I decided to go with a basic olive green uniform with dark grey armor plates.  I thought about adding a camo pattern to the uniform but I really like the basic look for him.  Perhaps not the best for a sniper, but I like the end result.

Next up is the other red shirt... I mean, recruit... for the crew, Shades.

For the rest of the crew, I tried to follow more of a military appearance but I wanted to do Shades a little more civilian.  Generic dark green pants with a tan jacket, with a mishmash of colors for the improvised armor plates.  Only one left to go and the crew will be ready!  Now I just need to start figuring out some terrain.  Until next time...

Zona Alfa: Mountain Maw And Crew Update

Well, it been a while since I dabbled with the Zone but since I had free time I decided to finally put some paint on a mini that I've been sitting on for a while.  Introducing the mountain maw!

While there is only speculation on the origins of some of the creatures that have appeared in the Zone, the mountain maw was pretty easy to track down.  Some kind of mutation of the common mountain lion, the maw is a ferocious beast that exists only to kill.

This is one of the nexu from FFG's Imperial Assault.  I've thought about painting this one for a while but I've always been on the fence with it.  Sure, it's an interesting looking critter but I've never seen how it fit in with anything I was working on until I started picking critters for the Zone.  The nexu is a really big beastie next to a human so it's a perfect fit for the large mutant.  Not sure what I'm going to use for the regular mutant but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

And that's not all!  I've also been working on painting up more of my first squad.  In addition to Jonesy and Walker, I've also painted up Doc.

Though he seems to have some kind of actual medical training, Doc doesn't talk about his past.  Whatever demons and skeletons might lurk in his background, the crew knows that he can pull them through in a pinch and in the Zone, that's all that matter.  For his gear, I went with a mishmash of patterns and colors since I don't see him being concerned with such things.  As long as it's rugged and durable, nothing else matters to Doc.  I also did a bit of a shout out for his blue gloves... Browncoats forever baby!

There are still the last three to paint up for the crew, plus I still need more bandits and a few other beasties... plus figure out some terrain... it's getting there though and as erratic as my painting has been, I've really been enjoying it and dare I say I even feel like I'm getting slightly better... man, I hope I didn't just jinx myself!  Until next time...

Random Updates: The Gloomy Core of Space Comrade!

This weekend I was able to get Core Space to the table for the first time!  I went over to my friend's house and we ran through the Salvage Run mission so we could see how the game played.

It's been weeks since I went over the rules or watched any playthroughs so it was a little rough to start, but once we got going it all clicked into place and we were able to dive into the action.  If you've played a miniatures game before then most of the rules just made sense, and the terrain really pulls it all together.

The highlight of the game?  Gak, Roykirk, and Butler (a new volunteer for my crew) all being taken out by Beck and Jace, while Kaori and Gaa'nek ran around like lunatics and randomly shot at people.

Meanwhile Arianna tried to get payback by taking shooting Jace and company with an incinerator.  Absolutely hilarious amounts of fail!  In fact, we were racking up some many of our own "kills" that the Purge barely felt the need to show shiny metal faces!

All and all, I feel like it was a hit and I'm looking forward to playing it again in the future!

After that, we dove back into Gloomhaven with his son as we tried to find out what our "patron" was really up to.  I switched from the scoundrel to the brute so we could have some heavy hitting action, but even so it was really close!

The end bosses were two bodyguards with a ton of hit points, but we were able to take them down right at the last minute and even find out some clues about what is really going on.

I have also been able to make more headway with my painting, finishing up Lars, Faye, and MAC.

I really like how MAC came out with his weathered paint scheme.  Lars and Faye turned out pretty good as well though I'm tempted to go back and paint their tool boxes.  Dewalt black and yellow for one, and Ryobi green for the other... just because I find it amusing.  I also like how the black edging looks on these minis so I'm going to go back and do the same on the rest of them.

This just leaves me with four more minis and then all of the Core Space I own will be painted, so of course it's time to start looking at what I'm going to buy next.  I've been really torn on this as the late pledge is still open for Core Space: First Born and it's quite the deal.  On the other hand, it doesn't deliver until later this year and it sounds like it shifts the focus more towards solo play.  Rather than wait, I could just use those funds to get more of the existing expansions.

It's tough to pass up the late pledge but I'm thinking that my best bet is going to be to pick up the Shootout at Zed's expansion.  This set introduces gangers to the mix (in the form of Zed and his minions) and it comes with a couple more civilians as well.  Maybe it's silly but it's the extra civilians that are what seal the deal for me here.  I love that the base game comes with three but I really like the idea of even more random people wandering around the board.  You can also use Zed and his crew literally as another crew, so it really seems like this set gives the most bang for the buck as far as versatility.

And last but not least, I picked up a new game on Kindle.  Zona Alfa, published by Osprey Games.

I remember when this one first came out and I'll admit that I was kind of "meh" about it, but having read some battle reports and play throughs I decided I want to give it a try.  I don't have many minis that fit the Soviet post-apocalyptic flavor but I figure that is something that I can work on remedying.  My main interest with this one is solo play so it'll give me some time to hunt around for the right minis, not to mention build some terrain for it.  I love the Battlesystems stuff and they do have modern post-apoc terrain, but I've got a bunch of black foamcore lying around so I might as well make some use of it.  Until next time...