Core Space: The Black Star Is Rising

While I'm waiting for my new cyberpunk minis, I decided to take stock of what I have to look at making them into characters for Core Space.  While I've got lots of options, I really was feeling like I was a little limited in the options that I have.  The rules from the basic rule book are civilians and I was looking to make some of these characters more tied to some of the locations.  Based on what I've read, it sounded like the worker rules are what I'm looking for so I decided to bite the bullet and order a copy of the new Black Star Rising expansion.

Black Star Rising is one of the new expansions for Core Space and features rules for both workers and scavengers.  Instead of just wandering around aimlessly, it sounds like the worker rules tie the characters to a specific location so I really want to see how they fit in with the regular rules.  All told, I will have nine NPC characters just from my Etsy orders so I'm excited to see how they help to flesh out my universe.  On top of these figures, Black Star also comes with four more NPCs which means I'll have a ton of options between the existing crews, civilians, workers, scavengers... it's going to be just like its own little universe and I'm really excited to explore it more!

Now I just need to wait for Black Star to arrive... plus my Brush Fu minis (which have finally shipped!)... yeah, gotta love the waiting game.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Mutants And Zombies And Chainsaws... Wait... Who Took My Chainsaw?!?

I had some spare time this Friday morning so I went to the game shelf and grabbed one that's been way down on the bottom collecting dust for a while now.  It's an oldie but... well, yeah... an oldie... It's Chainsaw Warrior released in 1987 by Games Workshop!

My brother had picked this up for me literally decades ago and I vaguely remember playing it a few times.  The concept is interesting enough; there is an evil force that is going to do something horrible in New York and it's up to you to save everyone but you only have 60 minutes to do it!  And you might be able to do it with a chainsaw!  Maybe... Sure, it's literally the name of the game but that doesn't mean that we are just going to hand you a chainsaw mister.  There's a process here, paperwork to fill out, we need to check the storeroom to see if we even have it in at the moment.

The mechanics of the game are simple enough.  In the turn, you advance the clock by 30 seconds then draw a card.  Depending on what you draw, you might have to fight a zombie, a cultist, avoid a trap, or maybe even find nothing at all.  The fighting all done with 2d6 (no shock there since it's a GW product) and that all seems straightforward enough.  In fact, the game play as a whole doesn't seem too bad but there are some specific parts that left me thinking "WTF guys?!?"

Before you start the mission, you need to create your character and to do that, you need to roll some dice.  The first stat you roll is your endurance which can be anywhere from 4 to 24.  Now this has nothing to do with how much damage you can take, this only tracks radiation poisoning and zombie venom.  If you are wounded by a zombie, you gain a point of zombie venom plus it might increase just from encountering a zombie.  This could be trouble but it seems manageable, especially compared to radiation.  As soon as you draw a mutant, you take d6 points of radiation just from looking at him.  There are fewer mutants than zombies but given the widely variable range on your endurance, this seems a little aggressive.  The rest of the stats are variable as well, being either one or two d6 plus a set value.  My first thought was at least this was a little more balanced but I think that this was just from the relief of seeing a set value being incorporated into the roll.  You are supposed to be some kind of retired super soldier after all.

Once you have your attributes, then it's time to kit out but wait!  There's still another die roll!  Another d6 but with a +2 this time, and that's how many points of equipment you can get... at random.  Yeah, apparently the stockroom you are being kitting out from has been pretty badly ransacked so maybe you can get that chainsaw that the we mentioned before... but probably not.  In fact, to be kitted out with the gear that they show on the character (chainsaw, flare gun, u/v emitter, medi kit, wire cutters, knife, acid, blaster, steel gloves, anti-rad capsules, and implosion waistcoat) is actually impossible.  All of this gear would cost you 12 points of gear but you only have d6 plus 2... drawn at random.

At the end of the day, I'd played it twice and then set it back onto the shelf.  The first run, I made it half a dozen or so turns into the game when a lunatic grabbed the only weapon that I had that could win the game.  Nothing to do at that point but go get a beer!  The second run went a lot better until I ran into the Meat Machine, a bizarre cyborg creature that rips off parts of you flesh to add to itself.  I was holding my own for a couple of turns, but as soon as it started hitting me it was over.  Not because I was dead, but because even if I managed to kill the Machine, I was so badly mauled that I wouldn't be able to shoot the big bad and actually hit.

An interesting concept with some mechanics that weren't too bad.  I could probably mod it so that it would be more playable but... not today.  Back to the shelf with you for now.  Until next time...

Zona Alfa: One Crew Done!

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

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

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

Random Updates: More Brush Fu For Me!

I've been sitting on another order with Brush Fu Studios for a bit now, and since they just started a 20% off sale it seemed like the perfect time to pull the trigger on it.  In my first order, they were nice enough to throw in a bunch of cyberpunk bases which I really appreciated.  I wasn't planning on using them at first but I'm glad that I decided to.  Rather than just hope they threw in more freebies, I ordered 10 of them so I'd have them on hand just in case.

Next there is a droid waitress, a street kid, a techie, and a corporate woman.  These are all minis that I want to incorporate into my Core Space/Five Parsecs universe that I'm working on building up and they will be interesting characters to have floating around in the background.  The kid could be some kind of informant, the techie is a store owner, the corporate is a Mrs. Johnson, and the waitress... probably just for the background but she seemed like a fun addition.

The last two minis in the order just seem like they will be fun to paint.  One is definitely an homage to the Knight Sabers from Bubblegum Crisis.  Might not be too easy to incorporate into the game but I think it will be fun to paint.  And then there is the dwarf barmaid pinup.  She doesn't fit in with the rest (in case you didn't notice) but she amused me and she was only a buck.  Easy way to kick the total up to get free shipping so why not!

I'm still waiting on this order to ship, but I'm very happy with the other prints from Brush Fu so I don't mind.  I have another set of minis that I ordered as well which I'm currently working on, but more on those soon.  Until next time...

Trollkin of Erehwon: They're Impallingly Bombastic!

All of the minis that I have for my trollkin are some variation on foot soldiers.  Be they warriors, gunners, or guard, none of them really fit the bill for an artillery unit.  Of course, there is actually an artillery piece in the Hordes trollkin mini line, but I'm trying to be thrifty (aka cheap) so I decided to see what I could cobble together from what I have.

Part of the plastic kriel warriors box is three caber throwers.  The models are pretty cool and full of character as is typical for the Trollkin, but I had no idea how I could use them.  A caber is thrown, so a ranged attack of some kind makes sense.  It should hit like a ton of bricks because... well, it is a stone caber after all but this also means that it shouldn't have too much range as that would be silly.

It took some digging through the dwarf list but I think I managed to find a way to slot them into my army, complete with a crew.  In the dwarf list is the bombard which has a minimum range and a relatively short long range which seems like a really good fit.  It is also overhead attack and does d4 hits, which again seem to line up nicely.  It is a giant piece of stone that the trollkin is chucking after all.

To represent the piece on the table, I'm going to field one caber thrower with two of the old metal kriel warriors.  This gives me a crew of three, and having them move as a unit while maintaining base contact will turn them into a large miniature.  This also gives me something to do with my original kriel warriors since they are a bit runty compared to the plastics.

One artillery piece is good, but two?  Well, that sounds priceless doesn't it?  Again looking at minis that I already have, the impaler is a light beast armed with giant javelins.  Looking at the dwarf list, I can see two options that this could line up with nicely.  The large bolt thrower and the small cannon are virtually identical in their stats, except their ranges are quite different.  The bolt thrower goes all the way out to 60", while the cannon only goes out to 40".  Personally, I'm thinking the bolt thrower since literally that is what he is doing and it gives me a longer range artillery option which could be handy.  As for representing the unit, this time I'm thinking use the impaler with a couple of the trollkin whelps.  These little guys are adorable and would look great next to the oversized beast.

With these two options, I'm pretty sure that I've bumped my available points to over 1,250 which means I've got a lot of options!  Just need to keep on plowing through them with the painting while I make a list, then I will be good to go.  Until next time...

Zona Alfa: First Crew Almost Done!

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

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

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

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

Trollkin of Erehwon: Slow And Steady, Just Like A Kriel Warrior

The weekend is drawing to a close, but I was able to make a lot more headway than I expected to with my Trollkin.  Behold, one unit of kriel warriors almost done... with assembly at least.

I've been enjoying these figures though they didn't go together the way that I thought they would.  I had plan to assemble them using super glue... unfortunately the very first one the parts just didn't line up well enough for the glue to adhere.  Thankfully I still have a small amount of the Procreate floating around so I've been packing the joints with this to make the connections.  No idea how well it will ultimately bond but fingers crossed!  I have been putting some score marks into both sides of the pieces to try to give the putty something to hold onto.  So far it's worked out?  As far as I can tell?

There are still a couple more unit choices that I want to try to represent, but that's more for my own entertainment.  Right now (once I get everything assembled), I can field field over 1000 points.  Heck, I might be even be able to push it up to 1250.  The only store that I'm aware of that plays the game regularly seems like they run either 500 or 1000 point games, so I'll be good for either of those.  I've also got a couple of ideas for cobbling together some artillery units using the minis that I already have, but more on that later.  Until next time...

Trollkin of Erehwon: And Stuff Was Done!

This is a holiday week in the States (Thank you for your service, veterans!) which means that I have slightly less time for hobby.  I could have packed up my paints and brought them home but... to be honest, I'm usually pretty busy at home so I don't know how much I would have gotten done.

That said, I did grab my Trollkin kriel warriors and scattergunners so I could work on their bases while I'm home.  Rather than just glue them down and leave the giant gaping slot in the base, I use Procreate to mold a ground and hold the feet in place.  Oh course I don't have a lot of Procreate floating around since I haven't used it since I did the Trollkin for my Frostgrave warband, but I had just about enough.  Maybe?

Since I had three scattergunners that were assembled before, I decided to base two more of them and then a full five kriel warriors.  Ideally I'd prefer to have two units of five warriors, but I'm not sure I have enough to base them all.  Then again, I do have the original metal minis but they are pretty small compared to the plastic ones.  They will work to fill the ranks but I'm glad I picked up the plastics.

Something that I did find surprising is that Privateer Press used the same bodies for the gunners and the warriors, just with different arms and bits.  Now I've just got to make sure that I don't mix up which bodies go with which sets.  Not sure how well they would swap so I'll just keep them separated until I get the arms on.

This also leaves me in something of a conundrum.  I like the plastics more than I thought I would, so there are two more sets that I've got my eyes on.  Then again, I've actually got a good number of points already so... not sure how that will play out.  Suppose I'll figure it out once I actually get the minis I have finished.  Until next time...

Five Parsecs: Campaign Turn One: The Adion Babysitting Club

Freshly arrived on the planet Adion, Randis wasted little time setting his crew about their various tasks.  Randis and Zav headed off to trade, Kultak and Oracle did a little exploring, and Vargoth and Aris... well, they managed to stir things up to keep any of their "friends" off their collective tail.

Randis managed to trade for an old military fuel cell, while Zav stayed with the fundamentals and rustled up some grub for the crew.  Meanwhile, Kultak meet an alien merchant and Oracle stumbled across a "retired" Unity arms merchant.  Credits are tight though, so both decided to pass on making any purchases.

Meeting up back at the Avadora, they found a message from Kultak's patron, Vertex.  One of his agents needs to be escorted to a data terminal in a questionable part of the city.  To make matters worse, a group of alien thugs from the a local trade union are making trouble there.  The information is time sensitive though, so Randis and the crew geared up and headed off for the meet up.

For this game, I grabbed the small 2' x 2' board that I'd boshed together for Deadzone and set up some of the Kaldstrom terrain to make a small urban center.  The thugs in this case are technically punks from the criminal element list.  Given my minis, reskinning them as unruly alien trouble makers just made more sense.  Some day I'll have a bunch of punk minis... but not today.

Next was the agent from Vertex.  Since its a data drop, I grabbed an old Rogue Trader era scientist mini that I had.  He has some kind of headset/implant thing so he just screamed at me when my eyes landed on him.

The last mini in the bunch was from the notable sights table, which I had skipped over when I first rolled up the mission.  In this case, I rolled up a "person of interest" and thankfully I have a mini that can fill the bill for this as well.

With the minis picked out, there was only one thing left to do... play the game!

As they moved into the sector, Oracle was able to interface with the local network and tap into the surveillance systems.  Having pin pointed the rabble rousers location, the crew quickly advanced towards their target.

The first step is rolling to seize the initiative, which Oracle was able to do quite handily!  Aris and Vargoth head to the left, while Zav uses his jump belt to go to the high ground!  The rest of the crew went to the right so they could get the data terminal in sight.

Round 1...

Hearing the cries of the thugs in the distance, the crew decided to hold position so they could respond to their opponents first move.

That's right; it wasn't bad dice, it was a personal choice to go last!  And if you believe that...   The thugs spread out into three groups.  One of the specialists headed to the left with two thugs, the leader went for high ground with the other specialist, and the remaining thugs cautiously moved to the right.  No shots were fired, but the one of the thugs was able to get line of sight to Kultak!

Kultak called out "Contact!" and sprinted across the narrow road to cover as the rest of the crew sprang into action.

While Kultak ran over to get back out of sight, Randis moved to a covered position while Oracle headed up to get to the high ground.  Meanwhile, Vargoth moved up to the cover of the building to keep an eye on the thugs, Aris sprinted across to make his way up the ladder to the landing platform, and Zav jumped again, ready to make contact with the person of interest they had heard about.

Round 2...

The dice were more favorable this round as the crew rolled three 1's!  I quickly assigned these and the crew sprang into action.  Randis set himself up for snap fire in case anyone got within range while Oracle scrambled up to the roof and got ready to start sniping.  Aris climbed onto the landing platform and rounded the air car, only to see the thug armed with a hunting rifle in the distance.

The hunter thug fires at Aris but the shot goes wide.  The other hunter heads up the stairs, prompting a snap shot from Randis which fails to connect.  Unfortunately for Randis, the hunter isn't rattled at all as it draws a bead and takes him out of action... or would have if I hadn't remembered about story points!  One point spent, and Randis was able to dodge back just in time.  The remaining thugs charge forward to close the gap.

Zav talks to the mysterious stranger... while shots are being fired... the way ya do, right?  And Vargoth crosses over the road in the hopes of setting up a shot at some point.  Curse the short range of scrap pistols!

Kultak peers around his cover but the thugs are still too far away, while the agent runs over to the same cover in the hopes of getting to the terminal quickly.

Round 3...

Aris and Oracle both get the drop on the thugs and choose the perfect target... the enemy leader.  The shot from Aris connects but only stuns the leader and Oracle... he shots the side of the building.

In response, Aris becomes the thugs number on priority!  Shots rain down on him from the leader, both of the hunters, and three of the thugs but nothing connects.  The rest of the thugs charge towards him... and then the shotgun blasts happened.

As the mysterious stranger leaves, Zav steps around the air car and fires on two of the thugs, killing both of them.  Randis and Kultak try to lend their own support but unfortunately their shots go wide.  Panic starts to run through the thugs and the leader and one of the hunters quickly exit stage right.

Round 4...

This time Vargoth feels his feral instincts burble up and he charges forward towards the thugs, but is still to far away to fire on them.

The closest thug to Aris charges him, beating him back but not taking Aris out of action.  The remaining hunter attempts a shot and the other two thugs run up to the bottom of the landing pad.

Regaining his wits, Aris levels his colony rifle at the thug that attacked him and gunned him down.  Zav runs over to the edge of the landing pad and lets loose two shots, taking out the two thugs at ground level.  The rest of the crew move up towards the center while the remaining hunter decides that he needs to make better life choices and gets out of dodge.  The agent retrieves the data, and the crew fades back into the shadows.

Post Battle Activities...

 The crew escorted the agent back to Vertex with the data safe and sound.  Thankfully there was enough confusion the that labor union don't know who broke up their demonstration so the crew won't have to worry about any future retribution (aka they didn't become yet another rival).  Vertex was generous with his appreciation as always, paying the crew handsomely for their help (5cr payment, taking them up to 13cr in the bank).  He had also been doing some digging and was able to get Randis more information about the Neknima sect that should help them track down the holy site referenced on their map.  Vertex also told them that he was already lining up another task for them and that he would be in touch soon.

Once the crew left, Zav told Randis about his encounter with the mysterious stranger and the information that they provided (plus one story point to take them back to four, and an additional rumor to take them up to two rumors for the Neknima quest).  Aris also revealed that he was able to "secure" some essential spare parts when the thugs withdrew (2cr worth of starship parts for future upgrades to the Avadora), while Vargoth found a damaged assault blade and bipod as they were leaving which were added to ship stores.  The battle looked sketchy at times, but overall the crew came out wiser for the experience (plus three XP each, except for Zav who earns four).  What will the future hold for the Avadora?  We will find out soon.  Until next time...

Five Parsecs From Home: Introducing The Crew Of The Avadora

Last week, I managed to get more paint onto my crew for Five Parsecs so I thought it was time to start introducing them.  First we have the feral of the group, Vargoth Mistrunner.

Vargoth is from the lower levels of the hive world of Tasoth.  An explorer by trade, Vargoth explored the lower levels of the hive looking for "treasures" that he could sell.  This went well enough until he stumbled into the territory of a group of fanatics known as the Sapphire Angels.  While Vargoth was able to escape, the Angels have been pursuing him since then.

Next we have Aris Salia, the resident agitator from the industrial moon Vilia N65M.

Aris managed to cross the Todov Consortium, the group that runs most of the operations on N65M.  With time running out and the goons closing in, Aris signed up to be part of trader Fol's crew.  This left his trouble behind for now, but the Consortium has a long arm.

We have the unlikely duo of our Engineer and Soulless up next.

Kultak ne Tenalu hails from the Tenalu enclave (hence the name... see what I did there?) located on Rivis.  While most Engineers focus on the technical, Kultak is actually a bounty hunter by trade.  His last contract was to track down a Soulless that had become severed from its hive mind and started calling itself Oracle.  Kultak found it on backwater trade hub and learned its true story.

Oracle had actually escaped from the Tenalu enclave and they were the ones to sever its link.  Kultak and Oracle quickly became companions and decided they would be better off forging their own path away from the enclave, which lead them to employment with trader Fol.

And finally we have the core of the crew, Zav Dezaran and trader Randis Fol himself.

Randis was a member of the Fehyn merchant family.  During one of his trade negotiations, he came across a text for the long dead Neknima sect which contained a damaged map to one of their lost holy sites.  Much to his family's chagrin, he decided to pursue this lead and struck out for the Wilds with his merchant cruiser, the Avadora, and his friend Zav Dezaram.

Randis met Zav when he was on one of the mining stations orbiting Sebunus.  The two quickly hit it off and Randis offered Zav a position on his merchant ship.  Since then, the two have been inseparable so it was no surprise when Zav helped Randis when he decided to head off to chart his own course.

I'm quite pleased with how my crew came out, and I'm glad that I've been able to churn my way through the boxes of Stargrave minis that I bought.  Between this bunch, my Zona Alfa crew, and my nameless heroes for Core Space, I've gone through sixteen of the sixty plastic minis so far... and that's without making up some targets... I mean opposition... for those two games.

And speaking of opposition, I started by first campaign turn for Five Parsecs!  I'm going to grab the board I'd done for Deadzone, throw together some opponents, a bit of quick terrain... and them we'll see how this ragtag bunch of ruffians fare!  Until next time...