Random Updates: Space Ex Vendors In The Zone

Another week and more painting! Yaaayyyyy!!!  I decided to continue moving forward with my Core Space/cyberpunk/Five Parsecs minis and put some paint onto my courier and the knock-off vendor.

After looking at a few different paint schemes, I knew that I had to pull some inspiration from FedEx.  I really like purple and the orange accents just pop against it.  For now I've only put the orange onto the cuffs for now but I might put some onto the cap as well.  It's a little tight since his cap is backwards and I've already attached his massive pack.  Whoops!  Oh well, I like the other colors that I pulled in so he is visually interesting.

For my vendor, I tried to give him a sickly and pale skin tone.  I knew his trench coat needed to me dark with a fancy red lining, but I had no idea what to do with his body suit.  Looking closer at the detail on it, I was reminded of Baron Harkonen's body suit from the original Dune movie.  I painted it up with some jack bone and a wash to pull up the details.  This was a little monochromatic though so I picked out all the straps and such with some grey to break it up.  A few more details and ta-da!  One creepy vendor ready to go.

I also decided to grab one of my Zone crew and slap some paint on him, in this case Jonesy.  I went with your typical military colors of greens and browns, and even speckled his jacket with some camouflage.  Quick and dirty, but I really like how it turned out... now I just need to grab my basing material when I'm back home.  Once that's done, it should pull the whole thing together and make him look pretty sharp.

Of course I also remembered once I was finishing him up that I've been talking about doing the Southwest Exclusion zone... which is more of a scrubland than forested terrain.  Then again, this is one of the recruits... it would explain why he doesn't have more experience.  Want to survive in the desert?  Then don't wear green!  Or I might just hop right back into a more traditional environ for my zone.  All things to consider.

I plan on finishing off the last of my CS/CP/FP minis this week and then I'll have to see what else catches my fancy.  I might grab the nameless heroes I put together since those will be a really quick job.  I'm also putting together another order to BrushFu since I've been enjoying painting these minis so much.  This time, I'm thinking more of the cyberpunk bases along with some more civilians to throw out there.  I've got a good number of them now but I really like the idea of painting up some more.    Until next time...

Random Updates: Cyberpunk Miniatures

I set up the paint station and BOOM!  Instant painted minis!  Well, not really... but I've made some great progress.  I already had three of them mostly done, but I went back and touched up the bases to dress them up.  Pretty happy with the results as well.  First up are the new crew that I bought for Core Space.  I might use them for Five Parsecs as well but either way here they are.

I'd picked these four out months ago but hadn't finished them off.  These minis are quite a bit larger than the figures from the Core Space game, but I really like the aesthetic of them.  Still need to figure out the names and such, but this is a really good start.  I also get a kick out of the cyberpunk Aang on the left.  I hadn't noticed the arrow on his head or the glider on the back when I bought it but it's a fun little touch.  I'm pretty pleased with the bases as well.  The two with the black lip are separate bases that the seller threw into with my orders and visually I think they are a nice touch.  They are available separately now so I might pick some more up on my next order.

The other two that are finished are the first of my "bystanders"... and yes, one of them is a dog.

I think the lady will be a good Miss Johnson/informant and the dog... well, it's a cyberdog.  What's not to love?  I'm thinking maybe he can be like Ein from Cowboy Bebop.  There is another dog in the BrushFu shop as well, so I might have to get this pup a buddy.

On top of these these two, I have three more that are still in progress.

To the left is a courier, and I'm really tempted to go with FedEx or UPS inspired colors for him.  In the middle is your friendly neighborhood knockoff vendor.  What a watch?  He's got a fine cyber-Rolex for ya.  The last mini isn't a print, it's actually an old Tau ethereal miniature from... a long time ago?  I think he will work great for an alien priest of some kind.

I feel like I'm on a roll with these dudes, so I'm looking forward to working on the last three.  Plus, I'm already putting together another order to give me more narrative options.  I've also still got the nameless hero minis to get some paint on as well, so between all of that there should be enough to put together an interesting story or two.  Just need to figure out if I'm just going to use the Purge for the big bad or look for another option to give some variety.  Interesting things to consider.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Blades, Wrath, and Buffy

Things got busier for me on the work front at the end of this past week so I wasn't able to get as much hobby done as hoped.  I did start to dabble with stating up my Goritsi and Teknes minis for Song of Blades and Heroes.  It was a little difficult since there isn't a lot to differentiate the minis.  Normally this isn't an issue but when I got to the Goritsi shield breaker it was making things pretty challenging.  While I ruminated on the solution, I decided to break out another board game to give it a try.

I picked up Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Board Game a while back but hadn't tried it out yet.  I brought it with me since it scales from one to four players so it works for solo play.  So without much ado I cleared off the table, set it up and gave it a spin.

I wasn't able to finish the game due to phone calls but I feel like I was able to get a good feel for it, at least enough for a quick review anyway.  Overall very quick to pick up but good gameplay that still gives a challenge.  Not going to dive too deep for now but I'm glad I picked it up and I'm looking forward to running through a full session soon.

I was able to get back to my Wrath of Kings minis after that though and I think I figured out the best way to handle the breaker.  Oddly enough I had to tap into some rules from Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes but I'm looking forward to giving them a try.  Currently I have two 250 point forces stat'd up for both forces so I'll have to see if I can squeeze in a game this week.  This is going to be a short week for me but worst case scenario I'll be able to run a game or two next week for sure.  Once I give those a try, I'll expand the forces to see how they work plus I've also picked up the advanced rules.  Figure running a game or two of each using the "same" minis will give me a good feel for how the two compare.

I've also managed to get a paint "table" set up too, so I've started working on my resin cyberpunk minis again.  Slow progress for now since I've doubled back to finish off some details (the bases and other small bits), but I've got some more into the cue that will be appearing soon.  Until next time...

Core Space: Interview With The Purge

After the fiasco at Atom Valley, the Black Rose set course for the nearest Hive Station.  Faye and Gak, two former crew mates of Arianna, are both at the Chatsubo Bar on the station and Arianna is hoping she can convince one of them to sign up again.

Now first up, I made a quick change with this one.  Instead of just rehashing the same three civilians again, I threw together five of my Stargrave crew miniatures to be the faceless horde.  These background characters don't activate until there is a Purge within line of sight of them, and they have just basic armor (value 1 for those of you playing from home) and an Outland pistol (1 die for short range only).  As for convincing either Gak or Faye to join the crew... decided to plan that out once I got there.

Docking with the station, Arianna and Lars need to make the loooooong trek to the other side of the board because in this mission there isn't an easy way over there.  Meanwhile, a harvester showed up only to be gunned down by one of the faceless horde (go faceless dude!).

Arianna took a slight side trip to check out a chest and hit pay dirt!  5UA in credits plus a set of shiny combat armor, all of which she pocketed (I decided that the credits didn't take up any space... just made more sense to me).  Unfortunately another harvester arrived and headed towards the Chatsubo, along with two devastators, one of which quickly gunned down the faceless fellow that had been so effective before while the other also headed off for a drink.

Lars decided to take a short cut and broke out a window, then even managed to climb through without incident!  Arianna went running along the southern side of the board to try to get to the Chatsubo before things got worse.  Which they immediately did.  The devastators opened fire on the closest target... Faye.  It took all their actions, but they managed to gun her down.  Meanwhile, Gak tried to jump through a nearby window but bounced.  Ouch!  I decided to rule that this broke the window in the hopes that Gak would do better when he stood up... which he didn't.  Crap.

And of course even more harvesters arrived on the western edge of the board and moved toward the faceless horde there.  Once again, the nameless hero gunned down one of the two harvesters.  If only I could roll so good for everyone else!

Arianna ran over to the open window to try to give Gak some covering fire... and her gun jammed.  Seriously?!?  Lars heads towards her via another chest but there wasn't anything overly tempting in it.  The harvester on the west closes with the unknown hero and kills them, while the devastators gun down both Gak and another nameless one.  So much for getting another crew member!  And the icing on the cake is another harvester that enters on the east by Arianna.

Sensing that it is time to go, Arianna and Lars start making their way back towards the ship while firing off some rounds towards the nearby harvester... and both missing completely.  But not the faceless hero!  Once again, some unknown takes a bead and BAM!  Down goes the harvester.

Another harvester shows up on the north, the harvester on the west keeps coming, and the rest of the Purge start heading their way,

The crew of the Black Rose keep on running while the Purge keeps closing in... plus another two show up in the north.  The unknown hero fires but the shots go wide this time.

Miraculously, the crew manage to gun down the harvester in their way and keep on running.  The rest keep closing while the unknown hero gets harvested and an assassin shows up on the east.

Thankfully, none of the Purge are close enough to catch the crew.  They dive aboard the ship, seal the airlock, and get the heck out of Dodge!  No extra crew member but they gang are able to sell off some of the gear they grabbed to net another 13 credits.  The life support started to go on the fritz as they headed out of the system, but they were able to buy the parts to get things back up and running.

And now I'm at a bit of a loss.  I'm enjoying the game but man am I getting my butt handed to me!  I had planned to recruit grab a new crew member, then do the salvage run mission since the extra body would mean more loot but... well, they both died.  Definitely need to think about what my next steps with Core Space are going to be.

While I'm figuring that out, I decided that I wanted to dip back into fantasy... more specifically, Song of Blades and Heroes.  To that end, I've grabbed by box of Wrath of Kings figures and I'm going to start stating them up so I can play some quick games.  Seems like a nice way to break things up for a bit for now.  Until next time...

Core Space: Hacked Off At Atom Valley

After returning the data chip to Clawtech, Arianna and Lars hear through their connections that the chip had been hacked!  The hacker is planning to transmit the data to the local systems and Clawtech wants them stopped.

Flush from their success last mission, Arianna and Lars jump at the opportunity and track down the hacker to Atom Valley, an outpost on the edge of the Barrens.

Arianna and Lars made a beeline to reach the hacker and maybe check out some of the crates as well.  Meanwhile, the civilians in the outpost meander around, not paying much attention to the two traders running through their midst.

Lars manages to reach one of the large chests and cracked it open.  Most of the gear inside was pretty plain, but there is a combat axe that he slides into his belt.

Arianna runs past another chest to make contact with the hacker, Kaori.  She gets spooked and attacks Arianna then runs, breaking through a window as she tries to put as much distance between them as possible.

Meanwhile the Purge arrived and a harvester makes quick work of Gan'Eek.

Arianna and Lars both run to make contact with Kaori again but again she takes a swing at them before running as far as she could, while more Purge arrive and start closing in.

Lars hacks to two harvesters and shuts them down, while Arianna runs to catch up with Kaori again.  Again she spooks but this time tries to take cover behind a corner.  More Purge appear and Butler decides that this is a good time to try to sell Lars some jacket blades.

Lars guns down the harvester heading his way, then runs over to the nearest chest in the hopes of finding anything worth taking.  Arianna tries to convince Kaori to tell her which terminal the data is stored at but completely fumbles!  Kaori gets spooked again and hides while more Purge close in and a devastator arrives and fires at Lars.  Both shots hit but he is able to shrug them both off thanks to his armor.

Tired of talking, Arianna opens fire on Kaori but she is too slippery a customer and manages to avoid the hail of bullets.  Lars throws open the crate but sees nothing of value so he starts running for the ship.  Another devastator makes an appearance and fires on Butler, but the burst goes wide.  The first devastator advances around the corner and starts tracking Lars to open fire next turn, and the harvesters continue to close in on them.

With the Purge closing in, the crew runs back to their ship and beat feet before they get overrun.  The mission is a failure but with Purge swarming in, everyone has bigger problems than a random transmission.

Before heading out of the system, the traders sell off the combat axe for a pretty penny.  Unfortunately the flight from Atom Valley caused some damage to the Black Rose's propulsion system, but they used some of their profit to patch the engines back up.  Before heading off world, they did manage to sell off the combat axe Lars had found and got full value due to trouble occurring on world.

Realizing that they need to add another to the crew, Arianna contacts a couple of her old trading buddies and arranges to meet them at Chatsubo's Bar in a nearby Hive Station.  Who with actually sign on to the ragtag crew of the Black Rose?  We'll just have to see!  Until next time...

Stargrave Miniatures: Exclusion Zone Crew... Assembled

Well, they aren't painted but I was able to piece together a crew using my Stargrave miniatures.  The three different sets made it easy to make them to kit them out with the appropriate gear and I'm really pleased with the result.  While these aren't your typical minis for wandering around the Zone, I've got a nice variety ready to go plus I can easily throw together some more crews if I want but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's take a look at my first crew in all their grey plastic glory.

Leading the way is Walker, a veteran of the New Southwest.  Formerly of an officer for the Institute in the New Texas Republic, Walker headed west to to seek his fortune... or maybe to just leave everything that he once knew behind.  He doesn't talk much about his time with the Institute but he was definitely well trained while he was there.

The sniper of the crew, Potshot grew up on the perimeter of the Zone and sharpened his skills picking off the random critter that would wander out.  He quickly became one of the best shots around, and quickly fell in with Ranger when he blew through town.

The least subtle of the bunch is Chatterbox, a call sign he earned for the incessant chatter of his light machine gun while on a mission.  There are even times that this has helped with stealth missions because he provides the perfect distraction while the rest of the crew slip in and out with no one being the wiser.

Doc is the man with the most original name in the bunch... and if you believe that...  Doc has known Walker for months now and become quickly became a regular in the crew.  Doc also uses the Hippocratic oath as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, as shown by the assault rifle that never leaves his side while he's in the Zone.

Shades and Jonesy are two new members that recently joined the crew.  They spend most of their downtime talking about their grand plans for all the script they will earn in the Zone... now if only they can survive until payday.

All told, these guys add up to 11K.  The remaining 1K I invested into Potshot to up his movement by 1", which offsets the penalty that he has for the sniper rifle.  The last thing to choose is their faction.  Of the six available, the only one that fits in my mind is the Independents.  Walker had ties to the Institute (aka the Scientists) and some of the other factions sound like they might be fun, but I want to try to hit more of a theme for most of those.

And there you have it!  Another group of Independents ready to seek out fortune in the Zone.  Will they even make it to their first payday?  No idea, but it was a lot of fun to piece together these guys from the Stargrave sets and I'm looking forward to getting some paint onto them.  Until next time...

Core Space: Trader's Gambit

Now that I'm set up in the hotel, I decided it was a good time to break out Core Space and dive into the Perseus Arm Campaign.  Currently I have the crews of the Black Maria, the Ion Hope, and the Skylark to choose from so I decided to go with Arianna with the hunter class and Lars with the Tech class.  No reason in particular other than I thought they would be a good combo, plus having a Tech in there seemed like a good idea.

The objective for Trader's Gambit (other than getting as much stuff as you can!) is to find the disgruntled Clawtech employee.  Will it be Butler, Gan'Eek, or Kaori?  Only time (and a die roll!) will tell!

Arianna beats feet right from the start and quickly makes it to one of the large chests, ready to sneak a peek next turn.  Lars follows her lead and runs for another large chest nearby in the hopes of finding something good.

The hostility tracker starts out at a massive 1 for this mission, so no Purge this turn.  Instead the civilians decided to wander around for a bit but other than that... it was pretty quiet.

The next turn, Arianna threw open her chest and found a machine rifle and a military pistol.  Now that is an upgrade!  Quickly swapping out for her new toys, she walked over to Butler so she could have words with him next turn.  Meanwhile, Lars cracks open his chest and finds a Titan's Fist power arm and a custom combat jacket!  Sweet!

The civilians go next with Butler running and hiding behind a console.  Apparently he is really shy and doesn't want to talk to Arianna?

And Kaori and Gan'Eek just keep wandering around, trying to figure out just what is going on.

Arianna walks up to Butler and has a very pleasant chat... especially since he is the employee we are looking for!

Objective in hand, she starts making her way back towards the ship... just in case.  And speaking of the ship, Lars sprints back there to drop off the money... I mean power fist... before seeing if he can find some more gear in some of the other chests.

Gan'Eek and Kaori keep up their walkabout while Butler decides that he was so taken by the conversation with Arianna that he decides to join her crew.  Perfect!

Lars gracefully lobs the power arms into the ship before running off, while Butler opens up a chest and finds a custom shield belt.

Arianna trots over to another chest and stands there waiting like a kid at Christmas staring at their presents.  What will this one have in it?

Gan'Eek sees Butler digging through the crate and offers to sell him a medi stim, though Butler declines since he believes in having a natural organic diet to maintain his health.

And then... the Purge arrived.  A whopping one Harvester who heads straight over to say "Hi!" to Kaori. She isn't feeling so friendly though, and runs as fast as she can to get away from her new mechanical buddy.

Lars continues he sprint and gets just far enough to open another crate only to find... a new car!!!  No, actually it's a energy pistol but all things considered, that ain't half bad!  On the other side of the sector, Arianna throws open her chest and again hits the motherlode.  Ship parts, a combat vest, and an outland energy rifle... but she can only take the vest!  Curse these tiny inventory slots!!!  With the Purge arriving, she and Butler both decide its time to head for the ship.

The harvester that had approached Kaori bursts through a window as it charges in her direction!

Meanwhile, another harvester has wandered into the sector and catches sight of Arianna.

Kaori dodges around a corner to try to hide while Gan'Eek heads down to where his friend had been.  Now where did she get to?

Not wanting to take any chances, Arianna opens fire with her machine rifle and makes short work of the harvester that had targeted her.  Then all three of the traders beat feet towards their ship as things are starting to heat up fast.  And then the devastators arrive...

Moving forward, they both draw line of sight to Lars and open fire.  Lucky for him he found that armor which manages to soak up the damage that each of them did to him.

Kaori didn't fare as well though as the harvester peeked around the corner and made very short work of her. Gan'Eek hears the struggle and comes running.  He takes a pot shot at the harvest but it goes wide.  Panicked, he runs back the way he had come from in the hopes of escaping the killing machine.

With the Purge closing in, the crew ran to the ship.  Butler managed to get into the airlock and Arianna took up a firing position next to the door to cover Lars who was just catching up to them.  The Purge must have triangulated their position though as not one, not two, but three harvesters came into the sector right next to them.

One of them reached Lars and raked its arm across his back, taking out half of his health with one blow!  In desperation, he attacked the harvester with his custom combat jacket and managed to take it out before diving into the airlock!  Arianna fell back, letting loose a volley of fire at the approaching Purge before sealing the ship and disengaging the docking clamp.

The crew had managed to escape... just barely.  Once back into a safer region of the Barrens, they took stock of the new gear they had managed to acquire.  After some shrewd negotiations by the captain, the crew made enough credits to make some serious repairs to the vessel and still have some more to put away into the rainy day fund which is good.  Because those storm clouds?  They are coming in fast!

This was a very fun game and a good way to pass the afternoon.  The mechanics of Core Space are very simple but it feels like there is enough there to keep you engaged.  Of course there is still the crew of that unnamed vessel that I rolled up for Five Parsecs From Home.  Having gotten a better feel for Core Space, it will be interesting to see how it compares to Five Parsecs.  I still need to weave together their story which sounds like it would be interesting to look at soon.  Until next time...