I've been struck once again with back pain which has meant that painting figures has been rather a challenge so I've spent my spare time working on some assorted sketches for both Planet 28 and Brutal Quest and figured it was high time I updated my blog with some doodles!
First up, there's Gilgamesh Giggles, patriarch of the Giggles clan, an unhinged extended family of tech grafting crazies that inhabit some of the more isolated regions of Farpoint.
Gilgamesh Giggles
Next up there's an assortment of monstrous types that will be making an appearance in future gams of Brutal Quest:
Gutter Runner
Stormvermin
Skaven slave
Orc Boy
Orc Warboss
There's been quite a bit of discussion over on the Planet 28 facebook page about how to create characters and folks keen to get some pre-created characters so I'm drawing up a few monsters and stuff to accompany the stats!
I've got most of this week off so will be drawing lots more goodies and if there are any characters, archtypes or monsters folks would like to see for either sci-fi or fantasy, please feel free to drop a comment here and I'll see what I can do!
There's been some new previews for Warzone Eternal in the form of a completed Imperial Golden Lion and an Algeroth Necromutant painted by Shoshie's Magnificent Miniature Painting:
Golden Lion
I'm liking the Golden Lion with the classic red and black tiger stripe camo and its got all the classic Warzone vibes from the heroic proportions to chunky gear and big shoulder pads!
Next up, there's the Necromutant:
Necromutant
This chap is really rocking the classic Paul Bonner artwork style but I do think the paintwork looks a bit incomplete and a little bit wonky and could do with a bit of finishing (not to mention some grubby rust for his armour!) but hopefully the complete figure will do the sculpt justice and I'd love to get my hands on one to paint for my own collection.
UPDATE: Alex has very kindly shared some unpainted examples of a Necromutant so we can see the detail and its looking pretty sharp!
I'm really looking forward to seeing some more finished figures as well as some complete with bases and what the full launch range is like. It would also be great to see some unpainted examples so we can see what the bare bones sculpts are like.
Its quite exciting to see the figures are starting to appear and I'm pretty pleased with what we're seeing thus far and I'll post updates as we see more!
Warzone Eternal is getting closer to release and Alex Kanous, the man behind Res Nova has recorded a fascinating interview over on Youtube with Upturned Table:
The interview gives us a bit of an idea on what we can expect from the initial releases and is well worth a listen and as I've mentioned in previous posts, its really reassuring that Alex is being very passionate about the classic Warzone and Mutant Chronicles aesthetics and story.
He's also very realistic over what is manageable from a small company and is planning on launching a very focused Kickstarter campaign that will see a couple of squads from each of the megacorporations and the Dark Legion of Algeroth. Interestingly, the Brotherhood aren't going to be represented initially as a complete force, rather there will be the odd character with the full force penned in for a future release.
While this may not be a popular decision with some players, the prospect of starting small and actually getting the game going before expanding with new units, forces and individuals is at least in my opinion, a very savvy one as there's no point of going mental and releasing a massive amount of stuff straight away and I personally like the idea of starting with a few core units before moving forward into expansions that make it possible to expand your collection!
Alex also goes into the background and has confirmed the fact that the game will be set in the second Corporate Wars era, the setting from the original Warzone 1st and 2nd edition and there's some fascinating chat about incorporating Dark Legion interference into games too!
The conversation has also confirmed a rulebook, faction box for each of the five Megacorps with each box having 5 figures which will allow you to make troops for two of the iconic squads for each force with a sergeant and a selection of specialists. Algeroth is confirmed to have a box of Undead Legionnaires, Necromutants and a Centurion as well as a Razide. A Brotherhood character has also been confirmed.
The focus of the game is initially going to be very focused on small forces of half a dozen models and as things develop, there sounds like theres going to be lots of scope to start introducing new elements, be they new scenarios, settings, units and forces. I'm loving the focus on getting the game released and building on the initial release rather than trying to do too much. The Kickstarter doesn't even have any stretch goals which I personally approve of as there is no point of creating a sprawling project like we've seen with some other games where the added gubbins result in the game itself failing.
We've also seen some sneaky peeks of some work in progress figures:
Razide
Blood Beret
I'm loving the figures as they're the first time we've seen the new sculpts in the flesh so to speak and while they're not complete and based, they're looking awesome with the heroic proportions of the classic sculpts but using much nicer and more modern standards.
Alex has also confirmed that the kickstarter launch will have complete painted examples of the final figures so no renders which is heartening as the game will almost be ready to go once the kickstarter completes.
We shall have to see where the game goes once the Kickstarter launches but I cannot wait to see how the project develops and plan on getting some figures when I can and will continue posting updates as things develop but in the meantime, All the best!
I managed to play out a bit of a game of Planet 28 last night to playtest some mods I've been pondering and it resulted in a really great little skirmish!
Martinez and Dmitry
Nameless Security Drones
The game was set in an abandoned settlement somewhere on the frontier and as I was playtesting some mods to the rules, I just went for a straight up fight with the two mercenaries entering from the left and the security troopers coming in from the right and attempting to kill one another.
I'm using Planet 28 but with the D100 mod so instead of characters stats being single digit, they are double digit as I love the extra little bit of crunch it gives.
The modified rules revolve around ranged combat at present with the introduction of critical hits and jams. Every ranged weapon has a 10% chance of rolling a critical which causes maximum damage minus the targets armour save and a 1% chance of doing a kill shot which does the same as a critical but means no save from the target at all.
Jams occur when you roll a double on your D100 dice and require you to spend an action to unjam the weapon. A missed shot jams as normal but a successful hit roll does mean the shot hits but you've run out of ammo. I'm pondering adding the Necromunda option of taking reloads for your guns as it feels more characterful for small games like this where running out of ammo at a critical moment can be truly unfortunate for the character.
The other rule I'm trying out is the Aimed Shot action which means you get an extra D8% chance of striking the target but at the cost of taking an action to do so. The bonus is that a successful hit gives you D4 extra damage. In game, this worked out really well as it resulted in some impressive shots from the lowly security troopers who managed to hit and damage my characters who were taking cover.
Finally I've also fiddled with the wounded effects so once a character gets down to 50% damage, they loose 10% to all their stats automatically as usual but once they get to 75% damage, they loose 50% to their stats. This represents a character who is badly shot up really not being much use in a fight and encourages you to play a bit more carefully.
The game itself was great fun as always and saw my adventurers get themselves caught in a bit of a crossfire of laspistol fire taking a number of small hits before Martinez forced one security trooper to flee with some impressive shooting.
Dmitry took quite a few hits that even being in cover and wearing medium armour didn't entirely stop and suffered from multiple jams with his SMG and eventually tried to climb onto the cargo stack to shoot at his tormentor and managed to fluff his agility roll and fell over resulting in much hilarity.
Despite this, he did eventually manage to wound and pin down the remaining guard long enough to cover Martinez who made a rush towards him. Surprisingly, the guard held his nerve and with his last shot managed to catch Martinez a glancing blow as he emerged into the corridor but his gun then jammed and Martinez cut him down with his big knife.
As always, Planet 28 is great fun to play, especially for super small skirmishes on terrain covered tables and I liked the way the mods I trialed worked as it resulted in quite a few cinematic moments and I plan on continuing to tinker with the rules to see what I can come up with to further improve the gaming experience!
With the kickstarter for 2nd edition coming into its last few days, I'm eagerly awaiting the new rules so I can delve into the game further and plan on continuing to bodge, tinker and pootle around with them as I go.
I'm also trying to get my Tiny Troops Junkers some opponents in the form of Syntha AI's but as I'm at work until Thursday and off to Liverpool over the weekend, I suspect I won't have much chance to work on them until next week now but until then, All the best!
I've finished the tiny warband I've been working on for the last week or so!
The force consists of two large Convict Legionnaire squads, a unit of Exo Suits, a small squad of Suicide Legionnaires and a captured Assault Androsynth squad led by an Enforcer to ensure the lowly convicts tow the line.
While the little guys are not particularly detailed, they will allow me to play a decent sized game using troops only from the core original Void rulebook which allowed any army to use a selection of models from other factions which is why I have a bunch of salvaged Androsynths fighting for Ironglass!
The Androsynths are possibly my favourite sculpts as they've turned out really cute! Game wise, they've got a pair of Cestus which allows them to really add some close combat power to my force. Their basic programming will force them to rush towards the closest enemy unit but I do like the idea of the Junkers having unleashed some poorly programmed and destructive robot assault troops on their unsuspecting foes!
The Exo Suits turned out ok but I think I'd rework them if I was to make them again as they're a bit blocky but in the game, they look like they're going to be totally bad ass with a mixture of Flamers, Grape Guns and Cestus. I plan on using them to crush enemies once the lowly convicts soak up any incoming fire from the enemy.
Suicide Troopers! Every despotic sci-fi army seems to need insane fellows strapped with explosive charges to hurl themselves at the enemy and it will be interesting to see how they actually work in the game.
Enforcer! This little dude can trigger the Convict Legionnaire's Neural Spike and instantly kill them to restore order to panicked units and is somewhat akin to the Junkers version of a Commissar but I'm suspecting he's going to be more effective at lurking behind the troops than getting stuck in to the thick of it and fluff wise, he's the leader of my force.
I've really enjoyed working on this project and I suspect I'll be making some more of the tiny troops for other games or forces in the not too distant future but I really want to get back to my Rangers of Shadowdeep and Planet 28 projects so will be taking a bit of a break from tiny troops for a while to allow me to get the other odds and ends I've got in various stages of completion out of the way before moving back to it.
The eventual plan is to get enough put together to allow me to play a 750 point game of Void to properly try out the system as I'm keen to keep trying out and playing different games and this approach is allowing me to churn out a decent little army with minimal time and cost and as I've previously mentioned, I think I'll be doing more in the future for the larger scale skirmish games I have in my collection which will be great as I've got so many rulesets that I'm highly unlikely to ever get chance to play otherwise due to a combination of the figures being too expensive or hard to get or just the fact that the prospect of painting an actual army in 28mm fills me with dread!
With that in mind, I've set my sights on getting the Void project out of the way first and will then move onto either Kryomek, VOR: The Maelstrom or 40k with these tiny chaps but I've yet to settle on which one I will do.
I've got quite a few more bits and bobs that are needing photographing to put up here but I'm struggling somewhat with lighting at present, especially as our spare room is currently stowed full of stuff as we're getting work done in the flat due to water damage caused by the great flood so getting a decent set up is proving a bit of a challenge. Still I'll persevere and get the stuff up this weekend so watch this space!
Just a quick post this evening to remind folks that Nic Evans has a Kickstarter running at the moment for the 2nd edition of Planet 28 and has been posting a bit of an update about the open license he's offering for the rules and I'm rather excited to say the least!
With ten days to go, Nic has already raised over £10000 for what is shaping up to be a really exciting new edition of the game so why not head over HERE and take a peek. The lowest tier of support is £1.00 which will get you a pdf of the rules which is an absolute bargain whilst the rulebook is going to be £17.00 plus shipping which is pretty great value for a hardback!
Nic's latest post about the Open License has got me to thinking about thrashing out some details of my assorted settings, ideas and mini campaigns and having a serious think about making a mini supplement once I've got my hands on the new rules and had chance to digest them and I'm also having a bit of a ponder at trying my hand at putting together a Youtube solo play battle report or two if I can figure out the tech!
As Nic says, any creation cannot be an existing IP but there's plenty of opportunity to really develop some fascinating settings, games and characters using his rules as a framework and I'm excited to see what other folks come up with!
I'm still faffing around with my Tiny Troops but have almost finished my Junker force and will then get on with the other odds and ends I've got lying around that needs finishing so hopefully I'll have a bit more indepth of an update over the next day or two as I get some photos of the assorted figures I've painted up during the last couple of weeks and possibly even get a battle report written up but until then, All the best!
I've found myself rather obsessed with making tiny troops and following a bit of pondering I've settled on throwing together a horde of Junker Convict troops so I can play a solo game of Void 1.1 in the not too distant future once I've got enough gubbins made!
I wanted to start the project with a couple of large units of Convicts as they're the bog basic choice for the Junkers of Ironglass forces.
The more of the tiny troops I make, the more quickly I get and while they're never going to be super detailed, they're giving me enough to quickly and easily make some tiny armies to play a few games in the coming months!
The basic head and body are made from Sculpey while the details are put together from EVA foam which is really easy to work with and flexible to make handy helmet crests, neck guards, arms and guns, not to mention combat shields!
Each squad consists of a sergeant with crest, flamer, thermite lancer and nine troopers and I suspect they'll get wiped out pretty quickly in any game screening more valuable troopers once I have sculpted them.
Its actually quite liberating just blasting through eight stands or 400+ plus points of troops in a single day and I'm seriously contemplating this approach for all the larger scale games I have in my collection as I think I'm going to be able to make an entire army in a single days work and while simple, they have enough recognisability for me to have an enjoyable gaming experience with them.
This approach may also get use in Epic gaming and an as yet undecided fantasy project in the future as I can see myself continuing in this obsessive tiny troop sculpting binge for some time...
Worry not though as I do plan on getting on with my Rangers of Shadowdeep project this week as I've got some hols and plan on putting it to good use by sculpting as much as I physically can for the duration as I've got tons of ideas I want to try out and these tiny troops are proving to be good to get a bit of basic sculpting practice in!
I'll see what I can finish over the course of the coming week so watch this space and until then, All the best!
