Wednesday 31 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 97: Mercenary and Combat Cyborg!

 Hi!

I've finished painting a new figure for my collection and have a revamped one done too!

First up theres Rosario Ramirez, Mercenary:


Rosario is a native of Farpoint but having no interest in mining, joined one of the many mercenary guilds that make their home on the frontier in search of a more lucrative and exciting profession. 

She's both competent and highly motivated and has been much sought after, working mostly short term contracts. Her latest employer is a bit of a mystery but pays well and has dispatched her along with a small team to the seedier parts of Freeport City, Farpoint's capitol. She has spent the last week surveilling a compound near the Starport and suspects she's' going be getting some action soon.

Rosario is originally one of the Syntha marines from Void 1.1 but she's generic and interesting enough to make for a good freelance gun. I'm painting a few more similar figures at present to give me a decent little Merc team to work for unknown employers doing shady deeds.

Next up there's Cassius the Combat Cyborg:


Unlike the clunky Servitors of Maximo, Vash has developed cutting edge cybernetic bodies for his own followers and his latest construct is Cassius. Once a lowly security trooper that was badly shot up in one of Inquisitor Fishers skirmishes with the Orks, Cassius now finds himself encased in Ceramite and armed with a Lightning Claw and rapid fire Bolter to bring the Empress' Justice to the uncouth.

Cassius is another old Syntha model from Void 1.1, this time an Assault Androsynth and was painted by me about 8 years ago and has been sat in storage ever since. I've reworked him quite a bit with a fresh coat of paint to jazz up the red and black and he now sports Non Metallic Metallic gear and I plan on using him in an upcoming game as Master Lee is out of action for the next four games!


Speaking of games, I managed to play out a bit of a playtest of a scenario idea I had for Planet 28 using the experimental D100 method that was posted over on Facebook a while back. It was brilliant fun to play and resulted in some nail biting moments. I didn't get any photos as some of the figures weren't completed and the scenery still needs working on but I'll play it again this weekend and will post a full battle report.

In the meantime, All the best!

Tuesday 30 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 96: Narrative Fantasy Gaming

 Hi!

I was excited to see an email coming through informing me that my copy of Brutal Quest should be heading my way soon and I should have the PDF on Friday!


I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the book as my recent sci-fi skirmishing has reignited my interest in playing fantasy too which got me onto thinking about what kind of game experience I want to play.

In years gone by I would have said either mass battle ala Warhammer or at least decent sized warband skirmishes like Chronopia or Leviathan but having watched a lot of videos of Mordheim, Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep and even Warhammer Quest (many thanks to GUERRILLA MINIATURE GAMES for putting on so many inspiring games over the years for us to enjoy!) I'm finding myself drawn ever more towards small skirmishes or even adventuring parties with heavily scenario driven and RPG or at least Fighting Fantasy style encounters which deliver a story not just a bloodbath.


Following my recent experience with sci-fi skirmishing, I'm finding the prospect of painting up a handful of adventurers and assorted villains an awful lot less intimidating than the prospect of painting a full on warband.

Coupled with the fact that I really do have the attention span of a goldfish and flit from project to project at the drop of a hat, such an endeavour isn't beyond even my feeble abilities at staying focused.

I'm really looking forward to giving Brutal Quest a run through as if it's anything like Planet 28, I'll be able to play a game in 30-45 minutes with two or three figures a side so we shall see how things go with it and I'm seriously contemplating picking up Rangers of Shadowdeep as it actually looks excellent. The only thing giving me pause at the moment is the price point. £35 for a hardback rulebook is pretty steep but if it plays as well as it appears to, it would be worth the expense.

I'm not planning on stopping the sci-fi skirmishing either as I have my old stuff from storage needing refreshing and pressing into service as well as the warbands I've painted during lockdown. I am noticing that I do have a few gaps in my collection that needs filling, mostly in the form of random encounters but also specific models or units but I can quite happily bodge along with what I've got as I slowly expand my forces.

I'll post a review of Brutal Quest as soon as I've had chance to read through it and will be posting up some pics of my newly reworked figures as I go but until then, All the best!


Monday 29 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 95: Warband Progression

Hi!

I've been working on clearing out my mancave today with all manner of junk going to the bin but I've stumbled across my old collection of Rogue Trader gubbins.

Some have been damaged in storage (I'm looking at you Talos unit!) and they all need a bit of work to dust off, touch up and get them into current standards of basing and NMM style paint scheme but it will give me 3-4 new warbands to introduce to the mix which should be fun!

Looking through the forces, I have the following:

Captain Santiago's PDF 

Dutch's Catachan Jungle Fighters

Assault Androsynth Class Combat Droid

Grod Gutshoota's Blood Axe Brigade

Midas Blackstar's Pirate Brethren 

It's going to take me a while to get them all fixed up properly but I'm hoping to have at least one done in time for the next battle report so watch this space!

I'm also hoping to finish stripping the paint off a selection of gubbins that I've had for a while now which should give me a better idea of what I've all got to work with but even then, I'm realising that I need to make some more odds and ends to add interest in games in different environments as I'd love to play a game with Vash, Glitterberry and the badly wounded Master Lee having to hold out against a bunch of Genestealers or Kryomek drones until Inquisitor Fisher turns up to save them but just don't have the figures at the moment!

As I've mentioned before, the more I've painted during this lockdown, the more I've played and the more I'm finding myself inspired to plan new games or plan new forces and as I'm keeping it to small warbands of a half dozen or so figures, it's fairly easy to keep the momentum going so who knows what other denizens of Farpoint will make an appearance in the coming weeks and months but in the meantime, All the best!

Sunday 28 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 94: Skirmish in Space!


 Hi!

I managed to play another game of Planet 28 last night so without further ado, on with the battle report:

The Background

Following the encounter at WAREHOUSE EPSILON, Vulcan and Grizelda have returned to their master with the mysterious artifact that they recovered. Maximo has deduced that further clues to the item he is looking for can be found aboard the long abandoned space hulk classified Venga B9 that floats far out on the periphery of the Farpoint System.


Knowing that Vash has been interfering with his plans, he has dispatched his right hand woman, Mistress Vex with a small party to recover the clues to the Phalantir, an ancient item of Lostech that is vital to his research.

Vash has tracked his opponent's shuttle to the forgotten hulk and has followed with his own craft. Landing in one of the ancient ships landing bays and discovering the vessel still has something of an atmosphere, he determines to intercept the mystery force and glean details of the artifact for himself.

The Forces


Vash has brought his usual companions, Master Lee and Glitterberry. Vash is armed with a Power Maul, Las Pistol and Heavy Armour and has the abilities of Luck and Slow. Master Lee, following his previous games has been given a Powerfist to represent his awesome combat skills as well as Bulwark, Brawler and Throw. Glitterberry has a Heavy Rifle and Medium Armour and his skill is Coward (he's none too keen on getting up close and personal with enemies having taken a club to the face in a previous game)


Mistress Vex has brought Grizelda and Vulcan, both who have been patched up following the skirmish at Warehouse Epislon. Vex is armed with a Great Blade, Las Pistol and Medium Armour and has the skills Foul Aura and Heal (representing the smokestacks on her backpack that constantly belch smoke and her tech abilities to repair her minions), Grizelda is armed with a Power Fist and has the skills of Fast, Berserk and Unshakable as she's hopped up on combat drugs. Vulcan has a Flamer and Medium Armour and the skill Iron Skin.

The Layout 


The labyrinthine and rusting corridors and cargo bays of the space hulk Venga B9. There are four items of salvage to be found, one in each quarter of the board. The doorways to these require a 5+ on a D10 to open apart from the two accessing the central vault which require an 8+. 

The four salvage items require an action spent rummaging to find anything with a roll of a 5+ resulting in a success. 


The two warbands enter the board at opposite corners with Vex appearing on the North West and Vash in the South East edges. 

The Game

Both Grizelda and Lee make a break towards the doors to the eastern sector with Grizelda's greater speed allowing her to reach her door first but not having any actions left to try and open the rusting portal.



Glitterberry makes a run towards the nearby scrap pile, nervously glancing around the shadowy hulk as he’s concerned that his warning of multi limbed monstrosities has been ignored by Vash.

Meanwhile Vulcan strides towards the nearest salvage and starts rummaging and Mistress Vex moves forward towards the Southern doorway.


Finally Vash ambles toward the central doorway, pausing occasionally to note down some fascinating architectural element, positive that with a bit of work and enough servitors he could put the hulk back together and possibly use it as a base or research laboratory.



Turn two sees Grizelda fail to get the door open on her first try but manages on the second. Meanwhile, Lee has no similar problems, reaching his own door and opening it with ease, preparing to slip through into the next chamber.



Glitterberry reaches the nearby salvage and his keen eyes pick out an interesting shiny piece of tech which he pockets for later. (To simplify things, I decided that instead of having to lug said salvage around, it was enough for either party to have discovered it. In future games it may be fun to have them beating each other up over it but I'm still familiarising myself with the rules so kept it as easy as I could!).


Vex, her sensors detecting movement nearby realises that she must get a move on and rushes the southern door, intent on finding out who the unwanted company is.



Vulcan also discovers his own salvage among the junk and then moves towards the central doorway.


Vash’s sensor array picks up that his party is being scanned and moves as quickly as possible toward the central doorway.



Turn 3 sees Grizelda rush the third scrap pile and discovers the tech. With Mistress Vex's party having secured two of the salvage items to Vash's one, its going to come down to who can break into the central vault first to decide the outcome of the game!


Lee rushes into the cargo hold, and prepares to charge the insane cyborg next round as he wants to introduce to Grizelda to his new technique, Powerfist to Face.



Vex opens the southern doorway and peers through and realises that the salvage in this quarter has already been claimed but decides to continue into her opponents zone to attack them from the rear as her minions attack from the front.



Vulcan moves toward the central door but fails to open it, not realising it is a push door, instead pulling with all his might...



Vash moves towards the central door and prepares to open it next turn, hefting his power maul in preparation for whatever he may find within. Could it be untold riches, priceless archeotech or ancient bottles of booze?


Turn three starts with Lee catching Grizelda as she rushes back to her own deployment zone and delivers a flurry of kicks and punches, taking her down to 10 points of damage. In return, she wounds him with one successful attack but misses her second roll and the swirling melee will continue until the next turn, neither warrior able to land a decisive blow or willing to give way to their opponent.



Glitterberry moves back toward the central doorway, preparing to give covering fire to whoever needs it but unsure who to follow. Does he go to Lee whose distant combat he can hear echoing through the chamber or stick with Vash who is intent on discovering the contents of the central vault!


Vex moves into the southern zone and strides towards the eastern door, aware that at least one of her minions have finally encountered resistance.


Vulcan opens the door and moves in, ready to check the last scrap token.


Vash opens his doorway and charges towards Vulcan but his charge is just short. (Apologies as I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of much of turn three due to the excitement!)


Turn four begins and in a brutal display of insane savagery, Grizelda puts Lee out of action and sprints towards her companions.



Glitterberry flits into the central vault behind Vash and opens fire on Vulcan over Vash’s shoulder but his burst of fire flies wide, the shuriken shrieking harmlessly past the Mechanicus and embedding themselves in the wall behind him.


Vex opens the door to the eastern sector and strides in but is becoming aware that her flanking move is taking far too long and by the time she reaches the central vault, she may be too late.


Vulcan attacks Vash but his combination of poor combat skills and Vash’s heavy armour results in no damage being done to the blonde. (This was a foolish mistake as he should have opened fire with his flamethrower which would have probably torched Vash and damaged Glitterberry!)



In return, Vash swings his power maul but misses but thanks to his lucky roll, then hits and badly damages Vulcan and a second swing takes the flamethrower wielding Mechanicus out of action.



Turn five has Grizelda charge towards the central vault but only manages to get to the doorway in time to see Vash standing over the form of Vulcan.



Glitterberry, sure that his boss will take care of the lunatic begins rifling through the scrap pile and on his second attempt finds the last item. 


Vex rushes towards the sound of combat but is cautious as Vulcans icon on her display has just gone dark so caution is required.


Vash pumped up on his last combat, cheerfully charges Grizelda and manages to take her out of combat too with a single swing of his power maul.



The final turn has Glitterberry turn and glance movement behind them and moves out of the vault and seeing Vex opens fire, damaging the begowned Mechanicus but failing to stop her.


Seeing her second minions icon blink out, Vex makes a snap decision, her force has recovered two artefacts and she’s now outnumbered and has now started taking damage. She decides discretion is the best bet and makes a break for Vash’s deployment zone, aware that he has foolishly left his shuttlecraft unattended.



Vash stumbles out of the vault behind Glitterberry in time to see Vex disappear round the corner and off towards his shuttle.


Conclusion


Vash and Glitterberry find Lee and administer first aid to the increasingly scarred martial artist and send a distress signal back to The Shrike, hopeful that Inquisitor Fisher will come to their aid, especially now there is mysterious Xenos tech, rogue Mechanicus and a space hulk to investigate.


Speaking of which, Vash is fairly sure that he’s seen something moving at the edge of his sensor array so hopefully the Shrike will arrive soon before whatever gribbly is is doesn’t decide to probe them…


So there we have it, both sides got two tech items and following the Planet 28 campaign rules, I rolled to see what happened.


Vash survived unscathed and gained 20 experience, Glitterberry earned 13 and Lee survived but has been left with a shattered hand so will be taking a break while his hand heals but still gained 3 experience. 


Vex earned 12 experience and has teleported her injured to safety (I gave her an extra five due to her theft of Vash's shuttle!). Vulcan is slowly healing so will miss the next game and earned 3 experience. Grizelda is shaken but thanks to being insane and hopped up on combat drugs is fine and earned 9 experience.


As both parties took two salvage items, I decided to give both 10 points of experience.


Looking back, I should have introduced some roaming monsters to menace the parties and Vex should have stuck with Vulcan as her abilities would have aided him and hurt Vash to boot but her stealing his shuttle seemed apt. Similarly Vulcan deciding to charge the heavily armed and armoured Vash who also outclassed him was foolish and he should have torched him with his flamer. Maybe he didn't want to destroy the last salvage item in a cataclysm of promethium or acted on instinct!


I'm really enjoying playing Planet 28 as it's simple but works really well at representing small skirmishes. I'll have to see what I can get painted for my next game and both sides have earned quite a bit of experience so will see if new companions arrive and if they advance any of their stats!


The Space Crusade board worked really well and with the addition of a few more odds and ends will be making a fairly regular appearance in my games as it has proved to be rather handy for representing combat in buildings or aboard spaceships now but in the meantime, All the best!

Saturday 27 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 93: Warhammer Quest? Try Brutal Quest!

 Hi!

I've ventured into town today to get some more superglue to get my Space Crusade themed board sorted for this evenings game but I've been watching the GUERRILLA MINIATURE GAMES Youtube videos of their rather hilarious exploits playing Warhammer Quest and it got me to thinking about just how much fun the game was back in the day.


Sadly the game itself, its expansions and extra heroes are ruinously expensive to get ahold of these days with the box set itself regularly turning up on Ebay for between £150 and £300 quid which is well out of my price range.

But is it possible to source the individual components, figures and whatnot myself and save some cash? The answer is yes I do believe I can. The boards can be fairly easily made by myself and while they cannot really match the originals, they would be good enough for me to play the game.


A little bit of interweb searching has tracked down the original rules and treasure cards and the figures themselves could be tracked down and proxied without much difficulty. It would require a bit of work but could be done.

Do I want to have a go? Well if we have another lockdown (I really hope we do not!) I'd dedicate the time to doing the project justice but I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Brutal Quest, the new narrative fantasy miniatures game by Nic Evans and will try that out first as if it's as much fun as Planet 28, it could scratch the Fantasy itch.

In Nic's latest Kickstarter update he says the books should be with him on Monday and we should get ours soon after and I'll be putting together some fantasy miniature shenanigans for that when it arrives! I am having a bit of a ponder on going for either classic red period GW like my usual style or going for something grittier but I'll see how things go!

In other news, I'm planning on playing a game this evening using Planet 28 first and a second game using Blasters and Bulkheads tomorrow so we shall see what terrain I can get finished in the meantime.

Let me know if you'd like to see a Warhammer proxy Quest project though as it wouldn't take too much temptation for me to get stuck in with it!

In the meantime, All the best!


Friday 26 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 92: Space Crusade Terrain Project Part 2

Hi!

I've got some assorted terrain gubbins put together for my Space Crusade themed board!


I've got the eight doors painted (although when I was taking photos I realised I've not finished adding the extra layer of grime that will properly finish them) and made some large, blocky structures to break line of sight and make things interesting!


I had hoped to have lots more done today but found that I've run out of superglue so will have to head into town tomorrow to pick up some more. I eventually hope to have 4-5 decent sized blocks for each quarter and some smaller consoles, med bays and other interesting gubbins as well as some more wall elements to get the board ready for future games but if I can just get enough to provide cover for a game tomorrow evening I'll be happy!


The more I work on this project, the more ideas I get both for making more stuff and indeed for future scenarios but with the news of the end of lockdown in Scotland on the 26th of April, my daily updates will be coming to an end but I'm really keen to keep the hobby shenanigans going, even at a somewhat slower pace.


I've been really tempted to pick up some more figures but I'm hoping to keep working through my current stash of stuff before I start buying anything else and have just finished a Syntha trooper to start a new faction for my warbands to encounter.

I'll post some more terrain and figures tomorrow but in the meantime, All the best!

Thursday 25 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 90: Try Not to Cry Over Spilled Paint!

 Hi!

Just a quick update today as I've received my paint delivery of the classic Miniatures Paints so will be giving them a bit of a try with some test figures to see if the newer ones are as good as the old ones.

Sadly I managed to spill the first one that I opened in a fit of cack handedness and managed to pour half a pot of metallic green on the kitchen floor. Fortunately its all cleaned up as to have done something so foolish in my usual painting area in the living room would have been most unfortunate to say the least!

In other news, I managed to play out a test game of Blasters and Bulkheads yesterday evening but managed to fluff the rules pretty badly so will try again this weekend when I've had chance to get another read through of the rules themselves. I have to say it was an entertaining game none the less with Vulcan setting fire to Master Lee using his flamer and said martial artist being totally unhurt but ablaze for much of the rest of the game!

I think with a bit more practice of the rules, they could make for a brilliant fun game but the complexity level is a wee bit higher than the likes of Song of Blasters or Planet 28 but the mechanics are good so I'll see how I get on!

In the meantime, All the best!



Wednesday 24 March 2021

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 89: Mistress Vex of the Mechanicus

 Hi!

I've managed to get a couple of figures finished for my upcoming game, namely a new Mechanicus character and one of the notorious Giggles Clan!


Mistress Vex is an adept of the Mechanicus and is the right hand woman of Maximo, the mysterious colleague of Vash who is shaping up to be a bit of a villain judging from the recent actions of his followers.

Vex is originally from the Forge World of Victoria XV, a highly polluted but industrially advanced planet that has a strong Mechanicus presence and has been working for Maximo for some years. She is a force to be reckoned with in her own right, being heavily armoured and armed with a power axe with a built in laspistol. She never removes her respirator in public but rumour has it that beneath the armour is a stunning beauty.


I sculpted Vex using sculpey over a greenstuff and wire frame as I needed an Adeptus Mechanicus character but was disinclined to spend a fortune on buying one. Some of her details are a bit rough but I really enjoyed making and then painting her and suspect she's going to be a regular in my games!

I went with a bit of a steampunk style and am now thinking of making some Skitari for her to lead...

Next up, there's Levi Giggles:


Levi is a member of the Giggles Clan, a notorious extended family that heeds no law but their own and are fond of raiding Imperial caravans for Tech and slaves. 

Levi is heavily cowled and bears a Blastmaster which he uses to bust some awesome tunes. The discordant racket is so terrible it has been known to kill at fifty paces but the Giggles Clan love Levi's tunes.


Levi is a Ramshackle Games sculpt by Curtis Fell and is a one piece resin casting that was lots of fun to work on and will be getting some new Giggles Clan reinforcements when I get chance as I love the idea of a bunch of unhinged rednecks with a fondness for grafting tech onto themselves!

In other news, I managed to play a quick playtest of Blasters and Bulkheads and really like it thus far! I'll be using it for my midweek battle report that will be getting posted tomorrow hopefully and will post my thoughts on it with the battle report but in the meantime, All the best!