Core Space: Run! It's The Purge!

I finished off the base colors on all of my Purge and though I had some concerns at the start, I am very happy with the results!  Behold the glory of the Purge!

For those that aren't familiar with Core Space, the Purge are the AI controlled antagonist/timer in the game.  As the game progresses, more and stronger Purge enter the battlefield, putting more and more pressure on you rag-tag band of traders.  Do you try to get more loot or do you run for your ship to try to escape?  I really like how the mechanic looks and I'm excited to see it in action, but for now let's take a closer look at the minis and how they turned out.

First off are the basic Purge unit, the harvesters.

These beasties just move forward to engage your traders and harvest their organic goodness by punching them in the head.  It really doesn't get any simpler than that.  For their scheme, I decided to stick with something similar to the studio paint scheme.  It almost seems like old bones in coloration and if just felt like a good fit.

The only criticism that I had with these minis as some of the detail seemed a little soft, but Core Space goes for realistic proportions so it makes sense.  In the end, I like how the wash helped to pick out some of the details and I'm happy with the result.  I want to do the eyes on all of them as well, plus add a blue glow to the ports in their chest but I'll come back to that as the urge strikes me.

Next are the harvesters big brothers, the devastaters.

These brutes will also happily beat your head in, but they can also blast you at range so they add something new to fear in the game.  The scheme for these is red with a white head but I decided to paint them the same as the harvesters.  Since the Purge are a computer driven race, I don't really see why they would differentiate the units with different color schemes so the bone color seemed like a good fit to me.

Devastaters are larger than the harvesters and they had much more defined detail on them that made it a bit easier to pick out the separate plates.  As with the harvesters, I plan to come back to them to add some details (eyes, reactor, weapons) but they are good enough to get on the table as they are for now.

Next is the bane of trader captains, the assassin.

Unlike the other Purge that target the closest humanoid, the assassin is specifically designed to hunt down the captain which adds even more pressure to the players to get the heck out of dodge.  The studio paint scheme is done in a very clean white which looks really nice, but personally I struggle with getting good coverage with white.  It also doesn't seem like a good fit thematically either.  The assassin is gleaming white?  Instead, I opted for a dark grey so it would blend more into the background as it hunts its target.

As for the mini, this is the other reason that I wanted its paint scheme to mark it as something different.  While I was looking at the minis before I painted them, I noticed that the silhouette of the assassin is similar to the harvester.  In fact, there were a couple of times that I had to stop and go through the minis to pick out the one with four arms.  By going with the grey, it makes it very distinctive compared to the other Purge minis.  As with the others, I will be going back and picking out some details but it's good enough for gaming right now!

And last but not least is the only "living" Purge creature encountered so far, the Live One.

The arrival of the Live One usually means that shit just got real for the traders.  Brutal in close and ranged combat, they are even worth more experience for the trader that manages to take down the first one in a scenario!

This is my favorite miniature in the Purge line.  It's pose is very dynamic and the appearance is unlike anything that I've seen before.  The frame of the creature itself is very slight but still have enough bulk that they were able to sculpt some definition into its form, and the cloak is amazing looking.  For color, I followed the example of someone that posted on the Core Space FB group and made the robe a nice and strong red, with the scarf-like part done in bone to tie it in with the rest of the Purge.  Originally I had done the collar of the scarf in bone as well but it made me think of Dr. Who a bit too much, so I decided to do that portion black instead to take away the emphasis.  The last bit (though it was the first part I painted) is the skin, which I did in the dark green-grey that they use on the studio scheme.  I like how it contrasts to the other colors and gives the figure a very alien feel.

And there you have the Purge!  Overall a lot more fun to paint than I originally expected (the spindly harvesters had me nervous!) and I'm excited to move on to the rest of the civilians.  I haven't finalized my thoughts on their paint schemes yet, but I think they will probably be similar to the studio schemes in the end.

Of course there is more in the works (zombies and heroclix galore!) but I'll show the progress on those later.  What to get a bit more done first.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Going For A Hobby Streak!

I recently watched an YouTube video by Dana Howl called "5 Lessons I Wish I'd Known as a Miniature Painting YouTuber in 2020".  In the video, Dana mentions the hobby streak, something which I was unfamiliar with.  My understanding is setting aside 30 minutes a day to work on the hobby, be working on minis or terrain, gluing or painting.  Just doing something to keep yourself going a little bit at a time.  She has been doing this for quite a while now, along with others using the hashtag #HobbyStreak so they can all motivate each other.

I love this idea and have already committed to trying to do the same, though I haven't been posting to Instagram about it.  I just went onto Instagram today for the first time in over a year, and quickly realized why I'd stopped.  Too much content to sift through to get to things that actually interest me, leading me down the rabbit hole and making time just disappear.  Using it is a great idea and I might change my tune in the future, but for now I'd rather spend my time on the hobby then dealing with Instagram.  Besides, I already send this blog out into the 'Verse so that seems good enough for me, even it if is mostly for my own enjoyment.

So far, I've managed to stay on course with the streak for a week now and it has been great!  All of my Purge minis are painted now, plus I've started working on a couple of old GW Talisman minis as well priming all of the other Core Space minis I have.  On top of this, I also received the bag o' Heroclix that I bought from Cool Stuff Inc. and have started working on rebasing them.

I've also been stewing around ideas for a Fear and Faith game but I've been a little stumped on the villain for the game.  What do I have a bunch of bad guys for?  I've got a bunch of zombies from Zombicide Black Plague but the clix I picked up for the good guys are all modern day, plus I have the fantasy village terrain that I'd love to use.  Mix it all together and what do you get?  A Ren Faire Zombie Jamboree!  I need to slap some paint on some minis first but the Jamboree is coming, don't you fear.  Until next time... 

Workbench: Slow But Steady Progress

As I mentioned in the last post, I had a handful of minis in progress and I managed to get through these over the weekend.  Well, except for the basing but that is in the final step so I'm going to count them!

As you can see, it's a bit of a mishmash of figures but it what spoke to me so I went with it.  And no, these aren't anywhere near award winning paint schemes.  I'm too out of practice to get into doing anything too crazy so these are just me getting in some hobby.  So just what the heck are these figures?

Starting in the back row, these are all Core Space minis from the base game; two Purge Harvesters flanking one of the civilians from the game.  Fun to paint but a little tricky as well.  I'm used to harder detail than these figures have on them but at the end of the day I'm happy with them.  I have more Harvesters that are in progress, I just decided to branch out for a bit instead of trying to power through them all as a unit.

In the second row from the left we have a Heroclix witch mini that I repainted.  The original mini is completely dressed in purple but from what little detail the figure has, it looks like the skirt and top are separate.  With that in mind, I hopped onto Google and searched for sweater and skirt combos, looked at some of the combos that popped up, and went with the colors I liked.  Not the way that I usually pick paint schemes but since this figure just looks like you average everyday person, it just seemed to make sense.

Next to her is Jyn Odan from Imperial Assault.  I've had her set aside since I painted up Biv Bodhrik for my GoA privateer force but wasn't really sure what to use her for.  At this point, I'm thinking she might become part of a custom Core Space trader crew but we'll have to see who else I can get to go along with her.

Then we have a really old Rogue Trader era astropath miniature.  I have the taller astropath as well, but I've been stumped on a good color for this diminutive fellow until this weekend.  I just recently finished listing to Skype of C'thulhu playing Heir to Carcosa so I just had to paint this guy up in yellow robes.

At the far end of the second row is Rin Farrah from Relic Knights.  I'm honestly not sure how I got this mini.  I had backed the 1st edition Kickstarter ages ago but got a refund after months of delays.  I think it was some time after that when Rin showed up from CMON.  This was a really tricky figure to put together just because she is so fricking delicate!  A total of four pieces go into her mini (head plus hair, body, left arm, and massive sniper rifle), and the barrel of the rifle is incredibly flimsy.  Just look at it wrong and it bends so I've been really hesitant to even assemble her.  In the end she went together easily enough but I've already had the barrel literally bend in half when she slipped while I was painting her.  I might try to replace it with a really thin brass tube to make it more durable but we'll have to see.

The last two figures in the front row are more Heroclix.  The guy in the trench coat I had picked up years ago for Betrayal to be the crazy old man but never painted him.  I will probably dirty him up at some point but for now he is good to fill in for one of the occupants of the house, or a character in Fear and Faith.  The final figure is a Pepper Potts mini I picked up for Betrayal or as a civilian in Mars Attacks.  I actually just repainted her in the same colors as the original figure but was able to give the figure a little more depth with some shade so it works.

Overall not a bad start and it was fun to put a brush to some figures that are just random; no unit colors, no set paint schemes, just paint whatever I felt like.  I've even ordered some more Heroclix to give me some more options for regular folk in Fear and Faith, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with them as well.  Until next time...

Workbench: A New Year, A New Challenge

Last year I decided to try to do the painting challenge of one mini per day.  I started out strong but unfortunately things took a nose dive through the middle of the year.  In the end I managed to get over 100 minis painted which was a very pleasant surprise.  This year started with another lull as we worked out way through the New Year but I've decided to reset and give it another go.

To that end, I sat down and started cranking out some minis over the weekend.  To be honest my cranking them out is more of a power walk compared to some people, but you get the idea.  So far I have six minis just waiting on basing with another two in progress.

My goal for now is to finish up all of these by the weekend (including basing), plus get some more underway.  I'm the first one to say that I'm not going for any awards with these figures so the paint schemes in some cases are pretty basic.  My goal with this is to get more consistent with my painting through the year, and the extra brush time will help improve the quality of my work as well.  Time will tell how I stick with this but I really enjoyed having the goal last year, so I'm hoping to make even better progress this year.  Until next time...

Core Space: The Beginning Crews

The base game for Core Space starts you out with two complete crews; the crew of the Black Maria and the crew of the Ion Hope.  Of course you don't have to play with those crews out of the box.  There is a point system so you can switch things around to keep it interesting (or even make your own characters with the deluxe rules!) but how do they all break down?  I thought I'd do a bit of a rundown of the two crews and point out what makes each of their members unique and special snowflakes.

Note that all of these characters have one base ability, and most of them have a second ability in their armor slot.  These second abilities are lost when the character dons armor.  For clarity, I have mentioned all of their base abilities first, with the second armor slot ability second.  If there isn't a second ability mentioned (I'm looking at you Roykirk and Tirgarde!), then they don't have one!

Crew of the Black Maria

Jace: Fitting for his military background, Jace has the base ability of counter shot at level (1).  This means that after he is targeted with a ranged attack, Jace can react by making a ranged attack against the attacker.  While he needs to spend a skill point to activate this, it does give him a reaction attack which I can see being handy.  Sure you have to be shot at first, but this gives you a chance to make sure your attacker only does this to you once.  On top of this, he also has the additional base ability of close combat (1), meaning he gets a close combat attack with no weapon.  While this might not sound like much, most characters have no natural close combat value so I can see this being useful in the early game.

Beck: Slightly off track from his background as the ship's quartermaster, Beck has the base ability of disrupt at level (1).  This lets him block tech skills or temporarily disable nearby Purge which could be a very handy skill to have in a pinch.  On top of this, he also has the additional base ability of distraction also at level (1).  This ability makes the target lose an action on its next turn in addition to any damage that it takes which I can also be as quite useful.  You only need to attack to activate this skill which means you can even slow down some of the tougher Purge.  Got a Live One getting too close?  Attack them and use distraction to suck up one of it's actions!

Lars: Fitting for the skilled technician, Lars has the base ability of hack at level (2) which lets him remove low level Purge from the board just by spending a skill point or locking doors to slow them down.  He also has the base ability of camouflage at level (1) which is great for an unarmored character.  Are the Purge closing in?  Just blend into the background for a round and hopefully they go after a more tempting target!

Renton: Another military man, Renton has the base ability of close combat (1) giving him some teeth in close combat with just his bare hands.  Fitting nicely with his background, he also has reflexes at level (1) which lets him ignore all hits scored during a close combat.

Crew of the Ion Hope

Arianna: Captain of the Ion Hope, Arianna has the survival edge of reflexes at level (1), potentially keeping her safe in close combat.  Add in her additional base ability of move (1), and you have someone that can zip around the board, dodging blows as she goes.

Gak: While Arianna is about dodging the blows, Gak is focused on delivering them to his opponent.  He has the highest close combat ability of the starting traders at level (2), letting him hit like a Mac truck.  Combine this with his additional ability of kata at level (1) and he will be rolling four dice between his two close combat attacks!

Roykirk: A man with a silver tongue, Roykirk has the base ability of persuasion at level (1) giving him the chance to talk enemy traders into standing around and contemplating their navel.  A handy skill if you have a Purge on your heels!

Tirgarde: Described as being cold blooded towards others, the ambush ability at level (1) is perfect for Tirgarde.  Get into cover, wait for them to get close, then shot them when they least expect it!

On top of these base abilities, you also get the class abilities which is where you get to customize the characters.  You select the class abilities by assigning career points which is where you can customize your character to what you need.

Of course just because these are the listed crews, it doesn't mean that you have to play them that way.  Each character has a point value assigned to it so you can mix and match as you want, especially once you add in more expansion packs.  The only limits are you can only have one captain, and you have a max crew size of six.  That's it!

Another thing that I really like is that you can hire more than just members of the official crew packs.  All of the civilians and gangers also have a crew side, giving you even more options.  If the three civilians in the base game are any indication, they look like they don't have as much potential for growth as the traders but it's great to have them in there as an option.  Now I just have to deal with the most challenging question ever; which expansion should I buy first?!?  In the meantime, I think it's time to break out the primer and get to work on these guys.  Until next time...

Snowman's 2020 Year In Review!!!

Well, that was one Hell of a year!  True there was lots of craziness, but honestly there were good bits as well.  That said, the real question what about the hobby?  Let's take a look...

Total mini bought...  Ummm... some?

Total minis painted...  Roughly 108!

Terrain pieces built...  Including Battle Systems stuff, about a dozen

I had the best of intentions to track all of this stuff at the beginning of the year but then things happened.  Not much that can be done about it, but looking over my collection I did manage to get a good number painted!  There were also some repaints that I didn't include in this total (I'm looking at you C3 strike troopers!) but this is still a lot more that I thought I was able to do.

As for the purchases, I really dialed things back this year.  After splurging for two Rune Wars base games last year, it only seemed reasonable to try to reign things in.  Of course I did by more Rune Wars stuff (Latari elves army, the demon dudes army, plus several unit boxes) but this was to take advantage of that line closing out.  I'd already missed out on getting more Wolfen and I wasn't going to let that happen again!  Now I've got at least two 2000 point armies for Warlords of Erehwon that cost me maybe $200 tops?  I still need to paint most of them but at least I'm not dealing with trying to buy OOP stuff to put together some forces.

And on the terrain front, actually getting my hands onto some Battle Systems terrain has been huge!  Between the Fantasy Village set and Core Space, I'm really impressed with the quality of their product and I'm looking forward to getting more this year!

Total games played... 72 total!

Sweet!  I actually got to play more games this year!  Not as many as I'd have liked but do we ever get in that many?  Of course the next big question is what did we play?

In a three way tie for third place with four plays each is Onitama, Gloomhaven, and Funkoverse Strategy Game.  Two of those I'd have liked to have played more (Gloomhaven and Funkoverse) but things just didn't line up that way.  There were some dry spells early in the year, and our plans for a biweekly Gloomhaven campaign had to go on hold.  Hopefully later this year we can get Gloomhaven back on track because I was enjoying playing that one.  A lot to get your head around but it was an interesting light roleplaying experience.

For second place at five plays each we have a two way tie between Sentinels of the Multiverse and Hocus Pocus!  I'll admit that I'm surprised that these two surged to the fore like they did but it been fun to get them both to the table.  I can see some issues with Sentinels normally, but my friend has the expansion that introduces villain teams so you stay in the game longer.

And the reigning champion with 10 plays?  Betrayal Legacy!  And we didn't even finish the whole campaign!  Two of our players got busy with college but we should be able to wrap this up this year.  I've been enjoying this game a ton and I can't wait to see how it ends.  Will we win the day or will the evil in the house destroy us all?

So what does the new year hold for me?  We just finally started the Ghosts of Saltmarsh game that I mentioned in last year's review so that's a good indication of things finally moving forward.  Plus with my recent purchase of Battle Systems fantasy terrain and Core Space, I want to get some games in with my daughter before she is off to college next year.  And more painting, that is a must.  I did a lot better than I expected last year but it was definitely short of the model a day total that I was aiming for.  Time to see if I can get a bit closer this year!  Until next time...