Workbench: Breaking Out The Astro Granite!

A friend of ours had come over for game night a week ago and while looking for something to play asked "What's Blood Bowl?"

I told him it was a fantasy football game with miniatures and he said "Okay, let's play."

Now all of this would have been fine if I had played the game within the last... oh, twenty years maybe?  Unfortunately the copy that I have is the second edition of the game (long before blocking dice were even a thing) and technically it actually isn't even mine.  Even so, having someone actually ask me to play... well, there was only one thing to do; download a copy of the most recent Living Rulebook.

For those of you that might not know, Blood Bowl was first created by Games Workshop ages ago.  They have had it meander into and out of their store as they revive the game for a bit before letting it disappear again.  In this case however, Blood Bowl never did just fade away.  Even when GW wasn't supporting the game, there was a very strong community still supporting and even growing the game.

Eventually GW seemed to realize that this thing that they created all those years ago was still alive and kicking so they brought it home so to speak, releasing the latest edition in 2016 with some minor changes but largely embracing the latest version of the fan supported/created Living Rulebook.

Needless to say it was fairly easy to find and print up a copy of the latest rulebook online.  Next I decided to "tackle" the board.

The latest edition of the game bumps the base size up from the traditional 25mm base to a 32mm base.  I don't know the official reason but it does seem to allow for more dynamic poses, plus they added a hole to the base so that you can put the ball onto the ball carrier's base.  The old copy that I have won't allow for the larger bases but it is made of not-so environmentally friendly Styrofoam.  The really sturdy stuff, not like you'd find around a burger at the drive thru.

As you can see, it's not the most eye catching thing.  In fact some of the marking are almost impossible to pick out so I decided it was time to start painting.

The first step was a coat of dark grey followed by two more coats, each with a lighter shade of grey.  This made the field easier to read but since I'd already gone that far it only made sense to take it the rest of the way.

The latest edition of the game marks off the wings on the sides of the field so I marked these right onto the board and I just had to pick out the logo.  I mean seriously, it would have been wrong to just leave it grey!  I also picked out the sidelines and end zones... well, just because really.  And I was going to stop at this point but... well, I might as well paint the end zones too, right?

And there it is in all its glory!  I could have tried to do labelled team end zones but I'm not quite that crazy; blue and red will work for me.  This also matches up nicely since the plastic minis from the game are blue and red.  Of course the orcs are blue while the humans are red which really makes no sense but what can you do... except paint all of them too!

No, I haven't done that.

Not yet anyway.  It still might happen, but we'll have to see how busy I am this weekend.  Ideally, I think I'd like to push around some Antares or Mars Attacks instead but time will tell.  Oh, and I still have to make the block dice too.  Time to dig up those wooden cubes I've got lying around...

Random Updates: What?!? It's Been How Long Since I Posted?!?

Wow.  I had no idea it had been this long since I updated.  Things have been pretty busy for me as I'm still cross training at work.  To pull the curtain aside a bit, I work for a steel fabricator as a draftsman and for the past month and a half or so I've been cross training in the shop.  Normally I had access to a computer during the day so I can write up a post during lunch time.  Being downstairs though means no computer hence the dry spell.  The blog is not done as I still have more random bits of hobby and such to spout into the interwebs but things might continue to be a bit slow until about mid January.

Even with this long term lull, I've actually noticed some serious spikes in the number of views that I've been receiving which is awesome.  Of course looking at where the traffic is coming from... I'll just say that people take the Sin City part of the name to heart and leave it at that.  So for those of you coming here looking for gaming related stuff, awesome!  Glad to have you here and I hope that you check back once things get back on track (aka I miss my desk and I can't wait to finish my cross training).  As for the people coming here looking for... well, other things... hope you enjoy the minis?

As for what's in store, I've been able to squeeze in a tiny bit of hobby over the past few weeks but most of my time has been focused on changing around my hobby space.  My wife told me that I should just turn what was going to be our office into my room so I've been working on getting things in order on that front.  Lots of shifting stuff around plus unpacking still more boxes of random stuff uncovering all manner of things (I had forgotten that I owned a respectable sized Ork army for 40k).  

I'd mentioned before that I found more of my Traahiri mercenaries for Antares and now I've added some transports for my Sulia mercenaries.  Not entirely sure if they are the right size to count as a T7 but that's what I'm counting them as for now.  Just need to get some paint on them and order some large flight stands then they'll be good to go.

As for other games, I've got some paint on my Mars Attacks ruins and I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out.  I haven't started on the minis themselves yet but in time...  I'm also interested in revisiting the Terminator Genisys miniature game as well since I just heard that the next Terminator movie is due out next year but with James Cameron running the show again.  Just need to grab a tracked Hunter Killer and I'll be all set... for now... mwah ha ha ha haaaa!!!  Oh, plus there is still Wrath of Kings lurking in the background.  I have the solid core for three armies in that game and the rules look interesting so I've got to give it a try sometime.  Ya know, in all the free time I seem to have.

On roleplaying front, things have actually been moving along at a steadier pace.  My wife, daughter, and I are part of a semi-regular group and we've been having a blast with it.  I've even managed to collect most of the minis for the party since we are currently dragging around half a dozen NPCs as we try to find a way out of the Underdark.  Most of them don't even have an active part in the session beyond dialog but I really wanted to have them all.  Kind of like Poke-Mon, just gotta get them all!

And so that's a quick synopsis of what's been happening for the past month.  Once I get back to the office things will get back on track but until then please bear with me.  Until next time...

Antares: So That's What They Are!

After some more internet digging I was able to figure out which line my Traahiri mercenaries came from; Reptoloid marines from the Galactic Wars line made by Ahketon.

Traahiri mercenary front

These miniatures are pretty basic but I think that they will work nicely for my purpose.  I haven't had time to get a lot done with them, but the first squad is about half done.

Traahiri mercenary back

In addition to the three squads of regular troops I found, there were also five Reptoloids in power armor which I'm going to use for a command squad.  This means I'll be able to field at least a 500 point scouting force (using the Freeborn Adventurers list) and I might even be able to stretch them out to 750 depending on the support options that I throw in there.

Painting Notebook: Algoryn AI Trooper and Spotter Drone

Algoryn AI Trooper from Yadrolla

My AI troops were all primed with Vallejo black surface primer (#73.602).  Once this dried they were dry brushed with P3 Gnarls Green (PIP 93034), followed by a mix of Gnarls Green and P3 Iosan Green (PIP 93035), and finally a layer of just Iosan Green.

AI Trooper front view

For the markings, I painted a base of P3 Morrow White (PIP 93073) onto the helmet and shoulders.  Once this had dried, I painted over this with P3 Khador Red Base (PIP 93021) and Citadel Yriel Yellow, and then cleaned up the lines with some Iosan Green.

AI Trooper back view

Their weapons and the tubing on their chest plates were painted with P3 Bastion Grey (PIP 93068) and then washed with a coat of Citadel Nuln Oil.  The visor slits were painted with a very thinned down Citadel Scorpion Green, using Iosan Green for any touch-ups needed.

 Algoryn Spotter Drone from Yadrolla

My AI spotter drones were done using the same paints and methods as the troopers.

AI Spotter Drone front

The three lenses on the front of the drone were painted with Citadel Scorpion Green and then I tried to put a dot of P3 Morrow White but its pretty fiddly so I don't know how well it worked.

AI Spotter Drone back

The end caps of the six suspensor/propulsion units on the back were painted with P3 Bastion Grey.

Basing

For my AI force, I decided to use my regular basing technique; a coat of either P3 Bloodtracker Brown (PIP 93030) or P3 Bootstrap Leather (PIP 93031), followed by a layer of Gale Force 9 fine basing grit (GFS019) glued down with Elmer's Glue-All.  Once this has dried, I add some spots of Glue-All to the layer of grit, spread it in patches with a toothpick, and then cover this with Gale Force 9 Green Static Grass (GFS001).  As a final touch, I paint the rim of the base with black paint to give it a clean look.

Workbench: My Digital Painting Notebook

One of the things that I've seen several people do but never done myself is keep a painting notebook.  What paints and colors you used, techniques that were done, things like that so you can recreate it in the future if you want or even just use as a reference.

I love the idea of doing this but I've always held off on doing this because I know my luck; I'll get a notebook, write a few things, and then loose the notebook.  Always the way it works, right?  So instead I've decided to use the blog for the same purpose.  No idea why it took me so long to come up with it as it should be pretty obvious but sometimes it easy to miss the nose on your face.  Plus I figure it should be pretty hard to misplace the internet, right?

Seems like a good theory anyway so there should be some more quick posts coming soon.  Heck, I might even cobble together a light box so I can do it right!  Just a whole bunch of craziness!

As a real life side note, I am currently cross training at work so I don't have access to a computer during my workday.  I usually type during my lunch break so things might slow down for a little bit over the next few months but I'm going to do everything I can to keep up my rate of at least one post a week.

Antares: Creature Feature and Reinforcements!

THE WILD KINGDOM OF YADROLLA

I remember back ages ago reading an article in White Dwarf about the Ambull.  For those that don't remember this beastie, the Ambull was a subterranean creature that you could throw into scenarios to mix things up.  The Ambulls could burst out of the ground to attack the troops or you could have the whole battle set inside of a warren of Ambull tunnels.  Of course this was back in the Rogue Trader book for Warhammer 40k so it was more than 30 years ago.  Since the closest real gaming store that I knew of was two states away, I was never able to get the Ambull mini but I love the concept.

Moving back to the present, it kind of feels like Antares is doing something similar with the fauna from Xilos and the new plants from the Dronescrouge supplement and I think its awesome!  It has also inspired me to look in my own collection to see what critters I can scrounge up to inhabit Yadrolla.  Since its a swamp/rainforest, I want to stay away from the myriad of bugs that I have except maybe the ripplers.  That's right, giant mosquitos for the win!

"Anyone bring a can of Raid?!?"

These I don't have a lot of these as they were released towards the end of the Starship Troopers mini game, but I should have more than enough for random encounters.  I've also been thinking about painting up some of these to use for Mars Attacks (namely the giant bugs random encounter card) so this will let me kill two birds with one stone!  It did wind up being a bit larger than I remembered once I had it assembled but I suppose they could just be giant space wasps.

I also have some of the old Tyranid ravagers which will fit the bill.

"Snakes... why did it have to be snakes..."

With their serpentine bodies and their giant scything claws I can see these being some kind of a snake-like predator, perfect for the swampy terrain.  I'll need to grab some more of the smaller arms for these but I think they will work.

And last but not least, I have some Growlers from when I was dabbling with Vor from FASA.

Here's a stock image of the Growlers since I still have to assemble mine.

I had picked up two of the starter sets so that gives me a good number of Razorbacks to throw into the mix.  I'm thinking of them as xeno-gorillas on some serious steroids.

Of course I still need to put together some stats for these but since they are just for fun it should be easy to do.  I'm not trying to make balanced units for an army, just something to add a twist to the game.

REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!

Besides adding to the menagerie of Yadrolla, I've also got more troops to throw into the fray!  Nothing major but I wanted to get a support option to round out their ranks so I picked up the X-launcher team for my Algoryn.  Add this team and the targeter shard to the troops from Strike on K'Ara Nine gives me a good 500 point block to start with.  It's taken longer than I'd hoped but life happens sometimes.

And the AI aren't the only ones getting more love.  I also picked up an X-launcher team for my Concord troops.  It seems like people consider this one of the mainstay support options so it made it an easy choice for both armies.  This also rounds out the core of my Concord army though I've still have a good number of sprues left thanks to the Summer sprue sale.  Maybe I'll paint up a strike squad as a special guard unit for my NuHu Mandarin...  Not a bad idea but it'll have to wait until I get my core troops painted.

Random Updates: Where Did The Weekend Go?

So I had plans to get my Algoryns painted up, start working on some of the alien lizards for Bastion, and maybe even start my NuHu Mandarin.  And then Starbound happened.

Title screen to Starbound.  Exciting, isn't it?

For those of you that haven't heard of it, Starbound is an open universe exploration/combat/crafting game.  Kind of like a side scrolling version of Minecraft with a sci-fi flavor.  My daughter introduced me to this game before but I haven't touched it for a while... until this weekend.  On a positive note, I did get the real life responsibilities taken care of, but by the time I sat down to paint, the lightning was against me.  I desperately need to get myself a desk lamp for my workspace because this isn't the first time that I've had this problem.  Which I did!

I finally have a dedicated workspace again!  With light even!

As can be seen, I've got a few things that I've been trying to get to which has been getting harder as the days are getting shorter so hopefully this will help with my productivity.  Then I just need to work on actually getting a game in!  Well, other than my weekly Dungeons and Dragons game that is, so its not all bad.  It'll be nice to get some minis back on the table though so I'm looking forward to squeezing in some painting time in this weekend.  Baby steps but at least things are still moving forward.

Antares: Algoryn Paint Scheme and Even More Independent Contractors!

(In the three and a half months that this post has been up, it has been viewed almost 700 times!  Now this seems a little ridiculous since all of the other posts have less than 50 views.  So what's the difference?  It had "mercenaries" in the title which seemed to be attracting a lot of attention from some parts of the world.  As a test, I decided to switch that part of the title to see just what happens.  And now back to our post already in progress...)

This past weekend I finally worked out the paint scheme for my Algoryn, with my daughter's help of course.  Can't decide on a color scheme?  Ask an aspiring artist!

Here are the two paint schemes... original on the left and the new one on the right.

The original scheme didn't jump out enough for me which is one of the things I'm finding I really enjoy about Antares.  So many of the paint schemes that I've seen are so bright it really made me want to do something more eye catching.  For this force, I was taking inspiration from the colors you'd find in a typical rainforest; parrots, frogs, and the like.  Unfortunately I stopped short on the original scheme so I threw another drybrush on the green and then undercoated the red and yellow markings with white first to really make them pop.

A freshly repainted squad... and they even go with the tablecloth!

In some ways its a subtle difference but overall I really like how much more striking the colors are.

I also finally had a chance to start digging into the mountain of stuff that is in my workspace only to find even more of the mercenary minis I had stumbled across.  Now I have enough to actually field a three squads of the Traahiri mercenaries if I wanted to, plus I found four of them in power armor.  Not sure how this would translate into Antares but its something I'm going to brainstorm on.  I do think that it would be cool to be able to field them as their own army as well but given the figure count I think it would be a stretch.  Of course I could always use them as allies and tack on a C3 command squad.  Have the Concord troops acting as advisors for the Traahiri.  Hmmm...  definitely something to think about but first I should get some paint on them.  This weekend I'm going to wrap up my Algoryn repaint and start work on the Traahiri.

Blood Bowl and Antares: The Rats Are Taking The Field! And Hey, That's The Green I Was Looking For!

It's that time of year again and friend of mine sent me a message with two words...

Blood Bowl.

It's been years and I think six editions since I played but I still have my Skaven from all those years ago.

Behold!  It's the...  um…   well crap, they had a name once... been too long...  the Rat Bastards maybe?  The Dirty Rats?  Gonna have to think about that one....

They still look pretty good, especially since I painted them 25 plus years ago but I'm thinking about changing them up a bit.  The original colors were... something acrylic?  But I don't even know what company made them much less what shade they are.  Since I have to repaint the ref/blitzer in the front, I think that I'm going to go with a brighter shade of green.  Seems like it would fit the warpstone greenish glow more than the dark shade I'd used before.  I also want to rebase them since the current edition uses 32mm bases instead of 25mm.  Thankfully I have a number of 30mm bases floating around so these will do nicely; really don't think that anyone would argue about the 2mm difference in size.  I've also got an old rat ogre floating around in my bits box so this is a good opportunity to finally get him assembled as well.

And On The Antares Front...

On a more sci-fi note, I've been taking a good, long look at my Algoryn and I'm really not happy with their final color.  It's just too dark so I decided to see what other shades of green were in the P3 range.  It took some digging but I did manage to find a shade that would work well... except it seems to be out of stock everywhere.  After digging through three online stores plus the Privateer Press website itself to try to figure out how I could get just one bottle of this paint, I decided to inventory the P3 paints that I owed... only to find the very color I was looking for.  And the moral of the story?  Look in your own paint collection before you start digging through the internet to find one color.

Beyond the Gates of Antares: Making My Own Little Corner of the Universe

One of the things that appeals to me about Beyond the Gates of Antares is how wide open the galaxy is.  Listening to some of the earlier episodes of the Freeborn Shard, I heard about the Antares Initiative which showcased just how much you could shape your experience anyway that you wanted.  To that end I decided to focus on a few worlds near each other in the Determinate for my armies.  This lets me create a narrative for my forces and also helps me focus on specific types of terrain which is always a plus in my book.  To that end, here's a brief introduction to my little corner of Antares.

The Algoryn World of Yadrolla

Roughly half of the surface of Yadrolla is covered with water while most of the landmasses a choked with dense swamps along the coasts that give way to thick rainforests as you travel inland. Originally settled by a Freeborn group much earlier in the seventh age, the colony managed to survive for a time until their monthly supply drop stopped coming.  It's not clear why this happened but without the supplies, order within the colony started to erode with the humans ultimately abandoning the settlements and reverting to being little more than savages.

More recently the Algoryn arrived and set up several outposts to act as a monitoring station for Ghar activity within the system, although they are also doing research into the local flora for possible medical applications.  While they are aware of ruined Freeborn settlements, they have had little need to investigate more and have left them and the survivors from the original colony largely untouched.

Several Freeborn houses have also been in contact with the Algoryn and have set up some tentative trading arraignments, though in some cases the Freeborn have also been covertly "recruiting" feral troops from the ruins.  Its not clear whether the Algoryn are aware of this activity at this time but if they are, they are choosing not to address it with their trading partners yet.  Only time will tell if this remains the case.

The first of my armies are the Algoryn.  My focus with this army is going to be infantry units and eventually some Intruders and possibly an Avenger or two for support.  Since this world is mostly a dense swamp, I want to stay away from most of the larger transports and tanks.  Let's be honest though, I'll probably wind up grabbing some eventually.

For my paint scheme, I wanted to move away from the typical red armor and do something different.  Since Yadrolla is a swamp/rainforest, I thought that a dark green would fit the bill but I must admit that I'm not sure.  I've added some reds, oranges, and yellow to them as almost tribal markings but I'm still trying to decide if its what I'm looking for.

The Concord World of Bastion

Located on the edge of an isolated pocket of Concord territory in the Determine, Bastion maintains a strong military force to repel any invaders that might threaten their shard.  While ships from the main body of the Concord still travel to their space, Bastion largely depends on trade with several nearby Freeborn houses.  Currently there is an uneasy peace with the Algoryn Protectorate although their recent occupation of Yadrolla has some ranking members of the C3 concerned about future expansion by the Algoryn.  C3 training has been stepped up and the shard is building its forces to deal with this threat to the Concord.

The next army is the Concord.  I really like the Ghar but I want to make sure that I started with some more basic armies to be able to show people the game.  While the Ghar look good, it seems like there are lots of exceptions to the rules with them so I think that Concord is a better fit for demos.

Unlike the Algoryn, my Concord scheme was very easy to decide on.  I'd seen a Concord force on Facebook that someone did using Star Wars Imperial colors and it really struck a cord with me.  I've settled on light grey instead of white but I really like the stark look to them.  The Concord sounds like a clean and orderly society so I think this scheme captures that feel well.  I also want to quickly expand this force to include several transports to make them more of a rapid strike unit.

 

Traahiri Mercenaries
(sci-fi reptile minis from an unknown manu)

The Traahiri are a race of warm blooded reptiles that have been contracted and supplied by Bastion to supplement their own forces.  They are not as advanced as most races and do not benefit from the nanosphere so C3 have supplied them with more basic mag weapons instead of plasma weapons.  The Traahiri have been quick to learn how these work and they have been used quite effectively for a number of military and policing actions by the C3.  Given the humid and swampy nature of Yadrolla, the C3 are hopeful that their "allies" will be helpful in dealing with the new Algoryn threat.

I had originally plan on buying both of the starters for Gates of Antares so that I would have a solid core for the Algoryn, Concord, and the Ghar.  Unfortunately real life intervened so its hard to justify dropping the money for the Battle of Xilos set right now which left me short handed for the C3.  Before the summer sprue sale I'd dug around and found some minis that I could make use of to supplement what I had.

These particular minis are sci-fi lizard men but I must admit that I have no idea who the manufacturer was.  There was what looked like a company name on their bases but my Google-Fu didn't turn up any definite hits.  Thankfully I've got enough to field a couple of squads as Freeborn mercenaries, so between these and the extra Concord troops I grabbed in the sale I've got a pretty respectable C3 force in the works.

As for paint scheme, I'm going to go with you basic lizard man greens but I'm going to paint their equipment in the same scheme as the Concord.  I think that this will give them a nice contrast and ties them in with the rest of the army as well.

Sulia Mercenaries
(Skinnie minis formerly by Mongoose Publishing)

The Sulia are an alien race from the arid world of Trora.  It is not clear if this is their native homeworld but they have a strong presence there, including a good sized standing army.  While the Sulia have developed their own versions of some of the more common weapons (such as mag and plasma weapons), they routinely trade with several of the Freeborn houses and typically use some of the more common devices including various types of drones such as spotters and even the T7 transporter.

Ages ago I ran demos for the Starship Troopers mini game by Mongoose Publishing.  While that game went the way of the dodo, I still have a lot of the minis from the line, including thirty of the Skinnie soldiers.  These sets included some heavy weapons mixed in with them but I figure I should be able to field a few squads of them with a command unit as well.  I have the Skinnie dictator mini that I can sub in for the Captain but luckily Rebel Miniatures have picked up a number of molds from this line so I have some options there if I want to add some more units to their forces.

As for drones and transports, I'll probably just use the generic drones from the Freeborn/Concord since these seem to be more easily accessible to others, plus it will make it easy for anyone to identify what they are as well.

For their paint scheme, I had done a gold and red which I think I'll probably keep.  Looking over most of my collection, I must admit that tend to prefer on greens and reds so it just seems to make sense to run with it.

And there you have it, at least for now anyway.  I've still got a number of Ghar battle suits on the sideline waiting to get painted up but I want to focus on the main forces first.  As always the trick is finding time but I'm finally making steps towards having a small hobby space instead of occupying the kitchen table.  This should let me make more consistent headway instead of the sporadic bursts that I've been working through.

A Pause for a Moment of Silence

I normally try to keep real life out of my blog but I wanted to let people know that there won't be an update this week.  One of my daughter's sensei's passed away last week so it has been a week focusing on healing and supporting the members of our dojo family in their time of need. Thanks for understanding and I will have more next week.

Workbench: From Watchtower to... Well, Assorted Bits

As I started going through all of the assorted stuff I've accumulated, I found something with a lot of potential.  Mattel used to make various DC action figures including the Watchtower.  I'd actually picked this up years ago to make a crashed spaceship but never got very far with it.  Looking at it now, I can see some potential for various bits of Antares scenery instead of just one large piece.  After all, a crashed ship would be cool and all but it would get kind of redundant.  "Sarge, we are we fighting next to another crashed ship?"  "Don't ask questions Private!  Just make sure you use the transmat instead of a shuttle and you'll be fine!"

The Watchtower in all its glory... minus a few bits... with really bad lighting.

I decided to break it down into pieces to see what I can do with them.  To be honest I was surprised with how easily I was able to disassemble it into some very usable bits.  The interior has a transparent orange tube which made me think of the kinetic wall terrain pieces I'd seen on the Warlord site. 

Here is one of the orange tube thingees

Between those and the coloration of the rest of the pieces I think that this can actually be fielded just about fielded as is, at least for the time being.

Some kind of a shelter on the left and I'm thinking maybe a quantum gravity generator on the right.

Of course I also need to figure out a way to store it.  Currently I have three totes full of terrain (one for vegetation, one for hard structures, and one for Frostgrave specific pieces) so I'm thinking that I'll scrounge up another for Gates of Antares pieces and try to stop there.  There's only so much room in the house after all.

And the largest piece which I'm thinking it could be a mining rig of some kind.

In addition to the Watchtower, I also found some random sci-fi reptilian minis and I'm going to base them up as another small mercenary contingent.  Think this takes me up to four different sets of minis that I'm looking at to field as random mercs and alien troops, not to mention assorted critters that I can fit in for various alien fauna.  At least they're going to get used for something, right?

I was also able to get some of my new minis assembled, specifically the Concord and Algoryn targeters, plus the Nuhu Mandarin and her nano drone.  All of these went to together quite easily and I was really impressed with how clean the minis are right out of the blister, how easily they went together, and the level of detail as well.  These were the first metal minis I'd worked with for Antares and I'm very happy with them.  I love how crisp the mandarin looks especially and I can't wait to get some paint on her.

Gates of Antares: Reinforcements For Bastion!

My order from the Warlord summer clearance sale arrived! Now I have enough Concord strike squads for days (which translates roughly into six squads), plus a NuHu Mandarin to act as a commander, and a targeter probe shard.

The might of Bastion assemble!  No, really, glue yourselves together, will you?

In addition to filling out my Concord, I also grabbed a targeter shard for my Algoryn and a bunch of Ghar assault suits and a bomber suit as well.  This helps round out the core of my Algoryn force and gave me one heck of a jump on starting a Ghar Empire force.

The Ghar shall reign supreme!  As soon as I get some more of them anyway...

Now I've just got to get some more assembling and painting done, then I can start hitting the game store.  Currently I don't think that there is anyone seriously playing Gates of Antares locally but there is a strong Bolt Action crowd so I'm hoping that I might be able to get some people interested.  I might pick up a support team for the Algoryn and possibly a T7 just to have on hand as well but one step at a time.

Unrelated to GoA, my family and I are still trying to settle into our new home as there were boxes and boxes and still more boxes full of... well, crap mostly it seems like.  It's amazing how much we hold onto that just is meaningless in lots of ways.  Dead games from publishers that closed their doors years ago because I might want to play it again someday.  Seemed like a good idea at the time but now... well not so much.  Maybe just in the insight we gain from getting old but there is only so much time in the day for everything so why include the other random bits of detritus that just add clutter to our lives?

So why this sudden serious note in my blog?  Well, I've decided that its time to lighten the load and finish the things that need to be done.  By the end of the month I plan on getting some of the random stuff that I've got laying around onto Ebay.  I figure I might as well try to send some of these things to people that are going to get some use out of them before I consign them to the scrap heap.  If some of it sells, great!  More more to invest into GoA and other projects that I'm currently working on and not things that I might have a use for someday if the moon is in the right phase... well, you get the picture.

Random Updates: Bookcases and Betrayal!

I was planning on getting in some gaming this weekend as the family was away but I got caught up cleaning.  Not normally the best of things but in this case its helping get out games squared away so I'm okay with it.  Behold the wall of games!

Nothing as fancy as Ikea but they aren't bad for knockoffs.  We purchased one of these shortly after we moved but quickly learned that there can't only be one!  After some shipping fiascos we finally have the second one and all of our games can have a happy home.  Huzzah!

Even with all the cleaning I did still manage to get a little bit of progress made with the Heroclix I'd picked up for Betrayal at the House on the Hill, namely removing all those gigantic bases.

These are an assortment of some of the more generic figures (as in not super heroes) that you can from the DC and Marvel ranges.  They aren't stellar minis but they will do for replacing some of the cardboard from the game.  The six in the front are also alternate investigators as the mix of characters from the original game is just kind of creepy.  I can understand the jock, the gypsy, and the professor, but why are the little girl and boy there with them too?  It's something that always bothered my daughter in particular as the story of it just didn't make sense to her, plus this gives me some more figures to use in other games as well.  I'm not even sure if I'm going to repaint them to be honest.  The paint jobs are your typical pre-painted stuff but for some figures that I can just grab and throw on the table, they should work just fine.  Now I just need to get some more of the things that go bump in the night.

Quick Review: Mars Attacks! by Mantic Games

Over the weekend I decided it was time to break out the Mars Attacks game that I'd ordered months ago and give it a push around.  I'd liked the reviews that I read before I purchased the game so it only seemed right that I should finally get it to the table even as a solo play.

The overall mechanics are really straightforward.  The stats and rolls are pretty intuitive with some special rules that add some flavor to how each of the minis plays.  In fact that was something that I realized I was doing wrong as I forgot that the Martian troops all have the armor special rule.  Kind of explains why they were dying so fast...

The Martian invasion begins!

The game also has a card mechanic is also a really interesting twist that I haven't seen used effectively in a minis game before. During a round, each player can activate two minis or one mini and play a card.  The cards have various different effects from calling in air support to increasing a model's accuracy for a shot, not to mention a number of crazy special effects that introduce battlefield effects.  During my play through there were civilians running around the battle field, two herds of flaming cattle stampeding, and a mutant bug showed up as well!  All of this adds to the chaos of the game but in a good way as it keeps you on your toes.

Watch out for the flaming cows!!!

Is it an incredibly deep tactical game?  No, but it does feel like a nice and quick beer and pretzels game.  It also doesn't seem like a game that will take hours to get through.  The base game is played on a 2' x 2' board with a grid already laid out so not only are you right in each others faces right from the start, plus there is no measuring so you just count your squares and shoot.

And I thought the mosquitos were bad this year!

All of this said it does make me wonder if its out of print.  It doesn't seem like Mantic did a lot to support this game once it was released and they had even announced that it would no longer be available a couple of months ago.  Right now the base game is not available on their site but most of the expansions are, including Mars Attacks: World War which is all of the core rules plus some extra stuff as well so it looks like most of the product line is still available, just not the boxed game.  Unfortunately this means that you can still get into the game but at a much higher price tag since the base game offered a substantial savings. Personally I wouldn't buy into it piecemeal like that due to the price you'll wind up paying but if you can find the base game for cheap it might be worth checking out.

Random Updates: Warlord Clearance Sale and a Bit of Hobby Time to Boot!

Just wanted to pass along that Warlord Games is having their summer clearance sale right now!  In fact, just this morning I flushed out my Concord ranks with four more sprues of Strike Troops (five troopers and one light drone on each) plus I grabbed a Ghar bomber sprue and four Ghar assault suit sprues for under $20.  Personally things have been tight for us financially lately so I've been holding off any purchases but this was just too good a deal to miss out on.  In addition to the sprues, I also picked up some targetter drones for both my Algoryn and Concord forces, plus the female NuHu Mandarin for my Concord.  I want to pick up some support options (weapon teams and the like) but this gives me a solid core for both of my armies plus I have a good start on the Ghar as well.

As for my own hobby, I've assembled my third squad of AI troops but I still have to get some paint on them.  I also decided to mod the squad leader and gave him a plasma carbine left over from my C3 minis.  I'd love to do this with more of them so I could field a full command squad but Algoryn hands are noticeably larger which makes some of the weapon swaps a little more complicated.

I also dug out a bunch of different minis that I can throw in for Freeborn mercenaries and between my old Skinnie soldiers from Starship Troopers and some assorted scum minis from Imperial Assault, I've actually got enough to be able to field a small force of them.  As with my other armies they are lacking in support options for now but they give me a solid core to work with.

Finally, I think I have a pretty good concept in my head for the Concord world of Bastion but I'm still working on my Algoryn colony world.  I've got some general ideas but I want to build its history a bit more, not to mention I still need to figure out its name.  I happened to stumble on some random world generators though so I'm going to see what I can pull together.

Gates of Antares Battle Report: Strike on K'ara Nine scenario one and two

This past weekend I had some free time so I set up a half table and tried out the first couple of scenarios from the Strike on Kar'A Nine set.  I'm already familiar with Bolt Action and Konflikt 47 but I decided to try the starter scenarios to get the feel for it from the ground up.

The first scenario (appropriately enough called Escape and Evade) has three C3 strike troopers trying to get across the board while two teams of AI troops are trying to stop them.  As its one of the intro scenarios, only some of the rules are used.  No pinning, no hand to hand, no command checks... just movement and shooting.  One of the Algoryn teams was able to quickly take down one of the strike troops but the other team didn't fare so well as the two remaining strike troopers teamed up and gunned them down.  With no one to stop them, they literally just ran across the table to rejoin the other members of the C3 force.

This was a good introduction to the mechanics but there were a couple of instances where pinning and command checks could have come into play.  I do think that this would be a good start for someone unfamiliar with the basics of the Bolt Action activation system and since the first scenario went so quickly I decided to play the second one as well.

The Algoryn AI open fire on C3 Strike Troopers as they move through open ground

This scenario (called Weakness?) features two three man C3 units facing off against two five man AI units, with all of the units getting spotter drones.  The AI objective for this mission is to eliminate the C3 units, while the C3 supposed to either get one of the units onto the AI side of the board or destroy one of the AI units as they are trying to determine the overall strength of the Algoryn force.  Now the first time I played this, I missed the second part of the C3 objectives so it instantly devolved into a firefight with the AI troops in cover and the C3 troops getting mowed down as they tried to cross the board.  I was kind of disappointed by the end of the game but decided to try it again using the full rules to see how they would change the feel.  It was at that point that I reread the objectives and realized that I'd made a pretty serious blunder there.

C3 forces from Bastion take cover from the Algoryn AI.

Whoops!  It turns out that using all of the objectives instead of just half of them added more to the game as it wasn't just the C3 walking into a flurry of mag fire.  It was cool to see pull in the command and pinning rules as well as they definitely add another dimension to the game play.

Next I need to assemble my third squad of AI troopers so I can give the third scenario a try.

Random Update: Terrain and Inspiration for the Freeborn

Things have been busy again so I haven't been able to make a lot of headway with my troops but there has still be some progress!  I've done some research on the more common types of plant life in more tropical regions and come up with some cool ideas that I'm looking forward to trying.  Thinking a couple of large mangrove style trees with giant root structures.  In looking around I actually have a lot more terrain than I'd thought I had so at this point anything else will just be more like accent pieces to give the table more of a jungle/swamp feel.

I've also picked some very inexpensive terrain in the form of one of the scenery packs for Infinity. Sci-fi style structures are one of the only things that I don't have much of and while these are fairly basic, they give me some quick and easy elements that can go onto the table.

Here are a couple of the buildings with some minis for scale

I've never done much with card board terrain but these went together fairly easily.  The larger structure was a little fiddly but considering the whole set was less than $10 before shipping, I'm okay with it.  The set contains a total of four of the larger structures, six of the smaller square structures, and two bridges which you can move around and have going to any of the buildings in the set.  This particular set is called Kurage Station but there are at least half a dozen different sets, each with a different skin plus they all come with a paper poster mat that ties in with the buildings.

While I really like the three dimensional look of fancier terrain, these sets are a great way to get a good amount of 3d terrain onto the table for less than $1 per piece.  Definitely not a bad option in my book.

My final paint scheme... at least for now anyway.

I've also gotten more done with my Algoryn.  I was really trying not to go with the red... but I just couldn't resist.  It a good combination with the green and I was actually surprised at how many things I was finding in looking up floral in rain forests and swamps that are red.  I also decided to go with the more tribal style stripes as I'm imagining a their world has an old human colony from a previous age and the remnants are little more than savages now.  Not only does that open up more ideas for terrain, it also give me a possible theme for a Freeborn contingent if I decided to go that way.

Speaking of Freeborn, I was also struck with a great idea for expanding my miniature options without needing to buy anything.  I currently only own the K'ara Nine starter and was saving up for the full Xilos set but life has reared its ugly head so I can't really justify spending that much cash on plastic soldiers.  Hobby is important but bills must come first.  Unfortunately this left me short on the C3 army as I don't have enough force selections to field even a 500 point army because I only have two tactical units.  Thankfully I was able to find a solution in the Battle for Xilos expansion which gives rules for mercenary units.

Years ago I did demos of the Starship Troops mini game for Mongoose Publishing.  Unfortunately that game went the way of the dodo but I still have a ton of miniatures for it, including a good sized force of Skinnies.  There are several references that I've seen for Antares that imply there are a number of alien races that have been encountered so combining that tidbit with the Freeborn mercenary list means that I can flush out my C3 army with a unit of alien mercs!  This will tide me for the time being and really says something about the versatility of the game.  Sure there are the established races in the setting but they have left a door open for people that want to use other minis to fill out the ranks or field as an army.  I don't plan on having them replace any of my actual Antares armies but its nice to have that option.

The next step is to run through the game a couple times to make sure I have my head around the rules then I'll see if I can find or convert some players locally.  40k is the most common game around here but there is a strong Bolt Action following as well so maybe I can convince some people to give it a try.  Here's hoping!

Workbench: Modern Ruins and Ghar... with Pictures Even!

Unfortunately there was not a lot of hobby time this past week but I was able to mostly finish off the first of my Ghar miniatures.

A Ghar assault suit in all its red glory!

I still need to add some details to the back of it (painting the reactor plus some more glowing bits too) but its looking pretty sharp from the front.  I also based this one along with my Algoryn minis and I'm liking how it ties them together.  I still need to figure out something to add a pop to them as the green is so dark but I'm not sure what direction to go with it.  Thinking maybe some yellow accents but painting with yellow is such a pain.  Red would be my go to as its easy to get good coverage but I'd like to do something a little different.

I also set up the ruins from Mars Attacks on the board to show the coverage just from the basic game.

The terrain included in the Mars Attacks game.

With just in the box, its enough to break up the fire lanes and with the extra terrain I grabbed I can definitely get some good coverage. Probably not enough to do a full 4' x 4' table in ruins (Mars Attacks typically plays on a 2' x 2') but its good have some modern ruins that I can throw onto the table.  Mix in some hedges and trees and it should do nicely for a bombed out suburb or a war torn village in Europe.

I've also ordered one of the Infinity scenery sets to check out.  These are very inexpensive cardboard options for some quick terrain so I'm curious to see them first hand.  After all, quick and cheap terrain that looks good is always a good thing!

Workbench: Modern Ruins and the Ghar

With the high temperatures and humidity in the Northeast last week, I just decided not skip on any hobby until it was over.  Beyond it just generally being really oppressive, I wasn't sure how it would effect paint drying and such so a break seemed like the best bet.

Thankfully last weekend it cooled down considerably and I was able to break out some of the modern ruins from Mantic.  These were originally produced for Mars Attacks but they did expand the range some to include some complete buildings as well as the ruins.  Though they say that they can be rearranged, I'd read some reviews that said the concept was better than the execution so I decided to just go ahead and glue them together.

Yeah, there was supposed to be a picture of them here but I haven't had a chance to take one yet.

Overall I'm very happy with how they came together.  There were more than enough clips and a few nice little details that you can add (store signs and fuse boxes for example).  There was also a good amount of terrain just in the basic game though I had also picked up their Ruined Village set so that I would have some more options available.  Eventually I'll get some paint on them as well though for now I'm happy with just getting them assembled as I'll be able to push around a couple of scenarios for Mars Attacks so I can finally see how the game plays.  Plus these should work well for the Terminator Genisys miniature game as well which is a nice plus.  I'll take two birds with one stone any day!

This past week, I've gone back to my Antares miniatures and I've been making some headway with my Ghar.  Currently I only have a few of their minis but I'm planning on buying Xilos Horizon in the next month which will give me a solid core of battle and assault suits to build off of.  I'm also really liking the paint scheme that I choose for them; red with some black accents.  I still need to paint on the lenses, reactor lights, and the like but its good to finally have a direction for painting them in mind as I've been having a heck of a time deciding on the paint scheme.

I'm also going to try to work on some terrain for them as well.  While I have a good amount of generic terrain laying around (mostly fantasy stuff I'd been making for Song of Blades and Heroes) but I'd like to make pieces specifically for Antares.  At this point the thing that is actually stumping me is coming up with an inexpensive but durable way of basing the terrain pieces.  Warlord has some nice looking pieces that come with MDF bases but I haven't been able to find anything comparable online where I could just buy the bases.  It seems like its go to be out there somewhere, the trick is just going to be finding it.

Workbench: Painting the Algoryn for Gates of Antares

With the paint scheme on my Concord decided and well underway I turned my attention to my Algoryn troops.  They are a militant society and I do really like the red armor but I wanted to do something a little different.  Looking through their history, the Algoryn are a resilient people so harsh environments would of little concern to them.  Flipping through the mini rulebook for inspiration I was really struck by the image of a swamp world with a raised structure in the background (its on page 50 at the beginning of the terrain section).  I really like the idea of modeling terrain around this kind of image so I decided to have my Algoryn based on a swamp world.

My Algoryn troops outside catching some rays

Rather than the typical reds for their reflex armor, my troops are a dark green base, drybrushed up with an olive green similar to the technique I used for my Concord.  Once this was done, I went over their weapons with the medium grey you can see in the picture and then hit that with a thin black wash.  With some basing they're table ready though I want to try going back and adding more detail to them when things cool down a little around here.  In the meantime, I've picked up some supplies so I can start working on the terrain.

Workbench: Painting the Concord for Beyond the Gates of Antares

One of the good but challenging things about Gates of Antares is how wide open the paint scheme can be.  There are the studio paint schemes for the various factions but they commonly encourage you to paint them how you want.  Its great to have all of the options available but I've got to admit that for me it tends to lead to the "Well, crap" moment from too many options.

I decided to try digging into the fluff to see if I could glean some direction from that but for the most part that is wide open as well, but while looking on the FB group I stumbled on a reply from Nick Gardiner about how he was inspired by Clone Troopers.  He did a great job with them and it inspired me to do something similar with mine.

I initially was going to go for Stormtrooper look as well but after doing some layered dry brushing I decided to only go up to a light grey instead of white.  I went back over their weapons, joints, and some other details with a black wash, and then picked out some details with red.  I also marked my leaders with red shoulder pads to make them a little easier to pick out while playing the game.

Front view of the strike squad...

...and the back view.

This is a pretty basic scheme but it will make it easy to knock out more figures when I expand my Concord force, plus it fits in with the story that I developed for them.  While this definitely isn't something that you need to do, I've always enjoyed adding something more to my forces so that they aren't just generic army x.  I find it personalizes the army and lets me feel more invested in the story of the game.

In the Antaren universe, the Concord are one of the two major powers with their territory containing a vast number of worlds.  Since I'm also collecting Algoryn and Ghar armies, I decided that I wanted to create a shard that would face these two opponents on a regular basis.  Both the Algoryn and Ghar are very militant and potentially hostile races, so I imagine that a Concord world bordering their space would be similar as they would have to be ready to deal with incursions on a regular basis.  In these harsh conditions the IMTel would be focused on maintaining and regulating order so the military would be able to respond as quickly as possible to any outside threats, hence the no nonsense aesthetic that of my troops.  I'm going to try to write up a little bit of a back story for them as well, but first I want to get some paint on my Algoryn troops as well.