Zona Alfa: Mountain Maw And Crew Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marvel United: United And Alone!

With work being rained out again, I spent most of my day working on minis.  A date was finally announced for our local Bolt Action tournament so I decided that I needed to get off my duff and actually start painting.  So far I've got one squad of the 12th Company finished up, plus my new transport which currently looks like it's fresh off the showroom floor... but more on that later.

After spending a number of hours painting, I decided to take a break and play a game.  I have a few of them out here with me, but a number of them are... heavier?  Not necessarily from a rules stand point, but length of game.  A short game is good for breaking up the monotony but I wasn't feeling like sitting down for a long play this time.  In the end, chibi super heroes seemed like the way to go.

I had seen Marvel: United back when CMON ran the Kickstarter for it.  It was really tempting.  I enjoy the superhero genre and the chibi figures just looked adorable, but a CMON Kickstater?  Now that is anything but cute.  My first experience with them was the Relic Knights Kickstarter which I ultimately wound up getting a refund on.  Too many delays and it was just starting to feel like they were never going to deliver.

Jump forward to now and preorder has become synonymous with Kickstarter, at least from CMON's point of view.  They do a good job with them, but they also push the envelope of the Kickstarter exclusive to the extreme.  In fact, I've even heard it said by a reviewer that if you don't do the all in pledge, there almost isn't a reason to buy their products... and I tend to agree.  Needless to say, I decided to pass on Marvel: United.  After all the extras, it was massive but it was also quite expensive for what it looked like you were getting.

Then again, when you find the base game on clearance from Wal-Mart for $15... yeah, I had to pull the trigger on that one.  Turns out that I'm glad I did.

The base game is for two to four players with seven heroes from the Marvel universe to choose from, trying to work together to defeat one of three villains.  The main game play is from cards that the players lay down that have different powers associated with them, but that's not all you use.  In addition the the powers on the card that you play, you also use the powers on the last player card that was played.  This means that if you do it right, your heroes can string together their powers to ultimately take down their foes.

Yeah, that's a really high view of the game play but there are plenty of other people that have reviewed it, and probably have dug more into it all than I would.  But is the game worth picking up?  Based on my two solo plays today, I say yes.  Both games were against the Red Skull (the beginner villain) but I mixed up the heroes for both games.  The first was Captain America, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel, while the second featured the Hulk, Black Widow, and Venom.  Even just from a single play for each of the heroes, I could see from why the decks were constructed that they nicely focused on the various heroes strengths.  The mechanics are also very tight, with everything laid out step by step in the rule book.  

The first game I had a couple of mistakes that went both ways, but in the end managed a win... just barely.  The second game... well, let's just say "Hail Hydra" and leave it at that.  This is also a game that you can't slow play, which I love.  You drag your feet, and those villains will walk all over you so you have to push forward as fast as you can.

Now the question that I had before I bought this game was do I need to have all the exclusives to make this game worth it?  No, you definitely don't.  Just the base game has enough in there to make for fun gameplay, which is really good because finding the exclusives... yeah, not too easy.

In my research for this game, I found out that the exclusives for this one weren't necessarily driven by CMON, but by their partner Spin Master Games.  I did find they have released a new bundle through Amazon that includes the base game, the Into the Spiderverse version of the base game, and Dr. Strange.  This is selling for $50 which isn't half bad for as much as you get, and if I didn't have the base game already I might have snapped it up.  Either way, if you are looking for a quick and easy family oriented co-op, I'd say this one is worth tracking down... as long as it's for a reasonable price.  Until next time...

Erehwon: Trollbloods Of Erehwon!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my trollkin have been talking to me and I'm looking for options so I can finally use them.  In addition to Song of Blades and Heroes, I really want to use them for Warlords of Erehwon but how?  Naturally there isn't a trollkin list for Erehwon and while I could build a custom list for them, I want to be able to run them in casual play without the list being an issue.

Looking over the current lists on This Gaming Life, Rick Priestly's blog dedicated to Erehwon, the best fit I can find is actually the dwarfs.  Ironic since the trollkin tower over the dwarf minis in my collection, but otherwise it makes sense.  Both are clan based cultures that have access to some black powder weapons, but also tap into the power of runes.  So with that decided, let's take a look at how I'm going to line up the trollkin with the dwarven units.

First and foremost, every army has to be lead by a lord.  Of my trollkin leader minis, Borka has always been a favorite of mine so that's an easy choice!  And no lord worth his salt doesn't have a bodyguard so two of my champions will hop on over into his personal retinue.

Next is the hero and this is another easy one.  Who is the ultimate hero in a trollkin's eye?  The fell caller, of course!  A couple of big axes and a stone torch as a back banner make him the perfect hero for the kriel!

And speaking of kriel, you can't really have a kriel without having some warriors to defend it.  And this is where I hit a bit of a snag.  I never bought kriel warriors myself because the minis were (and are) very expensive.  As these were pewter minis, and hefty ones at that, I can understand the need to have a higher monetary cost, it was just hard to justify that when the unit was so... average?  The one unit of these that I do have I bought from a friend that realized the Trollbloods just weren't for him.  Sounds good, right?  Except he only had nine of them for some reason.  As a single unit I can make this work, but that's the only way it will work.  With a minimum of five models per unit, ya just can't make two units out of nine!  

How to solve this?  By slightly breaking my rule to not buy any more miniatures this year... dang it!  Then again, I was able to snag the new plastic box of ten warriors and three caber throwers for just over half price so that's not too bad.  Not sure what I'll use the caber throwers for yet, but I'm sure I can find something.  Maybe a counts as catapult?  Could be entertaining...

Next I wanted to incorporate some ranged ability for my list which made the scattergunners I'd picked up the perfect choice.  In this case, these are counts as dwarf handgunners... which seems a bit silly?  A scattergun should be a bit more potent than a pistol but ah well... these are the choices you make with a counts as list!

And the last unit (so far anyway...) are my stone scribes.  Now these are a bit different since they don't really have any armor to speak of, at least compared to the other trollkin.  Then again, in the lore they are supposed to accompany the krielstone bearer and are willing to sacrifice themselves to keep him alive... sounds like a good fit for the dwarf crazed psychotic axe welding maniacs if you ask me, which makes them a fun little addition to this list.

Of course there are still some options that I want to look at adding... a runesmith, some kind of artillery... but what I have gives me a solid core for a good sized army so this is a great start.  Now if only I hadn't left my procreate at the house so I could start working on filling their bases...  something to add to the list for this weekend!  Until next time...

Song of Blades and Heroes: For The Kriel!!!

Lately I've been looking at my dusty and little used Trollbloods.  I LOVE these minis!  The lore for the Trollbloods is great and the minis are so full of character!  It is a damn shame that as an army, they were so lackluster.  I tried to field them a couple of times back in the day when I was playing Hordes, but man... they were just a grind.  I've even thought about selling them but... I just can't.  The minis have just always spoken to me, ya know?  But what to do with them...

The Kriel in all their glory!  Minus a little bit of paint...

I'll admit that my first impulse wasn't SOBH, even though it makes sense.  The system is open ended and encourages you to bring whatever minis are in your collection into the game.  For some reason, my brain side stepped this one and went to Warlords of Erehwon... but I'll delve more into that in the future.

I'd already been looking at pulling my Wrath of Kings minis into SOBH, and since they are on the large side, they will fit in nicely with the trolls.  Of course I'll need to get them stat'd up... oh, and painted too.  It's good to finally have a plan for these guys though, and I'm going to fit them into my rotating painting queue.  Very excited at the idea of finally putting these guys to good use!  Heck, I might even expand my collection a bit more as well, but more on that later.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Five Parsecs From WAAAAGH!!!

So short week in the field, but between last week and this I was able to get some stuff done.  First and foremost are my crew for Five Parsecs!

There will be a more "formal" introduction of them soon, but wanted to show what I'd been up to.  There is one more member that isn't present because I left him back home, so I'll grab him over the weekend.

On top of that there are a couple of more Orkz for da Waaaagh!!!

These two were my conversion for Kommandos.  In addition to the face mask, my Kommandos are all wearing backpacks just to make them a bit more distinctive.  Pretty minor changes, but they worked for me.  Oh yeah, and one of them isn't quite done but he's coming along nicely so that works for me.

And as you can see from the group shot, I'm really having fun playing with the various skin tones as well.  I first did this kind of thing with my Trollblood Frostgrave warband and love how it looks.  Just grabbing random shades of the base color and then hitting them with shades to add some depth.

And... speaking of the Trollbloods... they will be heading out into the field with me next week!  I want to try something crazy and put together a Warlords of Erehwon army for them using the Dwarf list.  Might work!  Might not but... we'll have to see.  Until next time...

Five Parsecs From Home: The New Phone Book's Here!!! The New Phone Book's Here!!!

 No, not really... BUT the hardcover copy of Five Parsecs From Home by Modiphius is!

It's a beautiful looking book, if a bit smaller than we usually have here in the States.  With full color throughout, with pictures that do a great job setting the tone for the games.  As with all rulebooks, there are a couple of nitpicks about the layout and such but overall I'm really pleased with it and I'm looking forward to diving back into it.  Of course that begs the question, what's taken me so long?  There in is the tale...

I ordered the physical copy way back in April, but Modiphius was awesome and sent me the PDF.  It took a little bit to cycle through my gamer ADHD but once I got back to Five Parsecs, I had a blast rolling up my first crew!  The random nature of the process seems like it would just create a chaotic mess, but it all just flowed together seamlessly because all of it was vague enough to act as prompts instead of locking you into anything specific.

So here I was with a crew of six malcontents to hit the spaceways... but how was I going to represent them in the game?  Some of them are pretty straightforward (aka da 'umans) but the more exotic ones were giving me some trouble.  In particular the swift just because how the heck was I going to represent that?!?  In the end, I just took the easy way out; the swift is now a feral... BAM!!!

And the next challenge was terrain... it's always terrain! Argh!!!  I was stressing about having a diverse selection of terrain to choose from so that I could cover any eventuality that the random charts could possibly throw in my direction... except it doesn't work that way.  The world traits table doesn't define the terrain, it gives you random traits associated with that world.  It could be a warzone, a bureaucratic mess, have import restrictions... nothing that defines the terrain.

Whoops!  And this, kids, is why you should always read all of the rules and not just make random assumptions!

With this revelation in mind, I'm setting a course to head back out Five Parsecs as I start assembling my crew so I can finally give this game a spin.  I distributed all their gear and so I've just got to piece them together from my Stargrave kits and then it will be go time!  Progress!  Yes, we have progress!!! Until next time...

Random Updates: Aaaand... Done!

I did it!  I finished my Core Space minis!  Well, my new Core Space minis... still have some of the actual minis from the box to go but I'm really excited to have the last of my custom batch ready to go.

I really wasn't sure which way I was going to go with this character, but I like how he turned out.  Of course it might be pretty close to the original color scheme for the Tau Ethereal but I'm really not sure.  The colors just kind of spoke to me and it only felt right to listen.

And he's not the only one making his way to the finish line!  I finally actually painted a Teknes union worker and a defender lineman from Wrath of Kings!

I really hemmed and hawed on this one but the color scheme finally came together.  Blue feels like the best choice for their common color, and I'm looking forward to pulling more skin tones into the other works as well.  There is some repetition in the sculpts so I'm hoping switching around some elements of their colors will break them up visually.

I also decided to pull in grey for the clothing on the lineman to break up the colors.  I also painted some of the bands with white and threw in a little Rhulic gold to spice things up.

And on top of that, I broke out some of my Ork boyz to get some paint onto them too.  Well, only one for now but ya gotta start somewhere, right?

I'm trying to use a variety of different shades of green to add some diversity to the mob and so far it's working.  Here he is with a few of his buddies who I painted earlier this year.

There is only... four or five dozen more to go?  Plus a konverted Ork trukk, some kustom killer kans, some kopters... yeah, I've got a lot of Ork stuff floating around right now.

And last but not least, I also finished painting up Walker, the leader of my independent Zona Alfa team.  Here he is pictured with one of the recruits, Jonesy.

As I previously mentioned for Walker, he is a former member of the Institute and it shows in his kit.  The armor is mil-spec armor from the Institute and so is his battle rifle.  I did mix things up a bit though with his shirt, backpack, and sidearm.  All of these bits are done in different colors from the Institute's grey to give him a subtle difference.

And there we have it!  A busy few days painting and I'm really pleased with the results.  On top of that, I also took all these pictures with a new light box that I picked up from Amazon.  I was struggling with the camera settings to get things to appear as I was seeing them but think I've nailed it down... at least for now anyway.  Looking forward to working with this particular piece of kit more in the future, including a possible review!  But more on that later.  Until next time...

Core Space: Family Picture Day!

So I was hoping to squeeze in a game but time is tight.  Still wanted to post something and I've been thinking about the pics of my minis that I posted earlier this week.  They were close up pics and I'm the first to say that I'm not a display quality painter.  Could I be?  Eh... Maybe?  But I enjoy painting for fun so that's more than enough for me.  I don't do have bad painting for table top quality though so I thought I'd put up a pic of them in their "natural habitat".

The Core Space terrain makes for a perfect backdrop, not to mention general scenery as well.

Also thought I'd take a couple of closer pics as well.  In the first one we have our fearless crew... plus the Space Ex courier.  For when it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.

And in the second we have our random NPCs... at least the ones that I have so far.  I want to do something to better define the top of the goggles on the vendor but overall I'm really pleased with how they all turned out, and they are definitely good enough for for table top quality.

Next week, I'll be bringing down my Runewars/Warlords of Erehwon minis so I can work on them some more along with my 40k orks.  Why 40 orks?  Well, we'll deal with that next week.  Until next time...