Horses! and.. more terrain.

On the back of painting five (!!) whole miniatures last month, I managed to finish two more that have been sitting on my painting desk since January.. two horses for use in Frostgrave. Can I use two at once? Nope. But you can upgrade your horse and I wanted a model for the basic horse, as well as a model to represent the horse after a few upgrades.

And of course, who will ride this horse but a captain. Might as well put all my gold coins in one basket..

..and then since 7 models is more than I painted in the last two years, I figured it was time to get back to more terrain. First up, some 3D printed craters off ebay (because those GW moonscape craters still go for more money than I'm prepared to pay..)

They will be for one of my many planned Warzone tables, but also here is a clearer picture of them. In.. the sky? 

..and finally, my TTCombat Iron Labyrinth Ultima set. I love making MDF terrain but oh boy was this a chore to get through! Half of the set has been primed brown (and then I ran out of brown spray paint) and then sprayed green from above and I'm testing out weathering techniques on a few of the pieces to see what looks the best for the least amount of effort. 

Thank goodness for paint pens! 

Hobby Butterfly

So.. things have been busy these last two months and I have completed two new projects that were not even on my list two months ago (naturally).

I have a draft of a new Rangers of Shadowdeep mission, At Any Price, which is complete and uploaded, but needs more testing before I post it to the Facebook group, and a new Warzone mission, Storm Warning, which I already posted to the Warzone forum.

Now I am taking a break from the writing to do proper hobby stuff; namely I am painting up my TTCombat Sector 3 stuff which I need for my "Mars" Warzone table. A few panels still need masking and spraying white and I haven't decided if I will paint the hand rails orange or yellow yet, but the sponge chipping and washes that follow shouldn't take too long and then it will be complete.

I also ordered some more Forward Base buildings from Antenocitis. My original layout called for only two, plus the garage and two connecting corridors. However I picked up the hub at some point and now I have another three on the way. With 7 buildings I will at least have the option of filling a table with them, or splitting them between two 4x4 tables along with my GF9 and Sector 3 pieces.

As an added bonus, I should be able to use some of this terrain for Gamma Wolves. Having been inspired by the many great mecha models in the Facebook group I have dug out an old AT-43 Red Blok walker for a heavy frame and have purchased a few 1/144 Gundam kits that will be kitbashed into medium frames. They won't get painted any time soon, but I look forward to completing the models so that I can try the crew out.

Kill The Messenger

The WZR mission "Kill The Messenger" is now complete. I also tidied up the version of Ilsa from Kirkwood and baked it into a PDF. Next I will work on doing the same for the Environmental Hazard rules before I return my attention back to the Fallout campaign system I've been working on. On the hobby side of things, I am slowly working towards minis and terrain required for Deniable Ops.

Warzone Resurrection mission "Building Bridges" - Complete.
Warzone Resurrection mission "CSAR" - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep mission "Evacuation" - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep companion customisation - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep mission "Black Hart" - Complete.
Warzone Resurrection mission "Kill the Messenger" - Complete.
Warzone Resurrection rules "Environmental Hazards" - 90% complete, needs layout and graphics.
Fallout Wasteland Warfare campaign - Paused, 40% complete.
The Walking Dead campaign - Paused, 30% complete.

Teh Wurdz

One of the things that has been keeping me busy over the last 2 years - besides work and family life - has been my participation in the rules and play testing team for Warzone Resurrection. While the future of the game is no longer in the hands of Prodos, there remains an amount of written work (rules, profiles, fluff etc)  that was created by the team but never officially finished. The plan was to collate these pieces of work - or at least, the pieces that made sense to include together - and release them as part of the Kirkwood expansion.

Of course, things went sideways and that didn't happen in the slick and polished manner we wanted (indeed it was super hard to get it published in any manner) but eventually a PDF was cobbled together and released. This was largely the last "official" act from Prodos and the rules team, but the quality (and indeed the completeness) of those individual efforts varies greatly. It is my intention to continue working on several of the documents until they reach a standard that I am happy with and these will be released here.

Warzone is not the only game that I am writing content for. In an entirely non-official capacity I am also working on 'proper' campaign systems for both Mantic's The Walking Dead as well as the Fallout Wasteland Warfare game from Modiphius. I have also been working on missions and house rules for Rangers of Shadowdeep. This means that, alongside my hobby projects I also have a number of 'content' projects in the works, and here is the current state of the queue:

Warzone Resurrection mission "Building Bridges" - Complete.
Warzone Resurrection mission "CSAR" - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep mission "Evacuation" - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep companion customisation - Complete.
Rangers of Shadowdeep mission "Black Hart" - In progress, 80% complete.
Warzone Resurrection mission "Kill the Messenger" - Paused, 50% complete.
Fallout Wasteland Warfare campaign - Paused, 40% complete.
The Walking Dead campaign - Paused, 30% complete.

There is also the matter of Warzone Resurrection Deniable Ops, which is currently 'rules complete' at 111 pages including 19 missions, and is available at version 0.14. In terms of the written effort, it needs testing and balancing, as well as general editing. The next version will be 0.2 but this is way down the queue because the biggest challenge is now in terms of layout and interior art / photographs and the latter is being held up by my lack of painted models and terrain.

(Above) A preview of the hex-based campaign map for Fallout.

(Below) Two of the four maps in the RoSD mission "Black Hart"

I ATEN'T DED

Wise words, Granny. Wise words.

Wow, where did 2018 go? It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that I was trying to get the prizes sent off for the 500 point list competition we ran at the end of last year.. and then I brought some scenery, and thought about painting a few things (more of the former, less of the latter).

And then it was September 2018. Dammit.

On the plus side, I finally got Deniable Ops 0.14 ready, and I think I'm done now with adding new content. 0.15 will be a consistency pass and I will factor in any feedback I get on the rules and mission balance. After that, it is time so whip the layout into shape and start adding some photos.

The Eastern Push, Part 4

Technically parts 4 and 5, as the extra bases arrived last week (along with some steps to reduce the cost of buying more bases in the future - some rollers from Greenstuff World).

The baseless minis were cleaned up and based..

..and over the weekend there was some gap filling with milliput. 

Also took the opportunity to push a few of my other Warzone minis past the 'get ready for priming' stage, including my converted Emancipator and a suitable Iron Mastiff model that came from Chronopia of all places.

Tonight, we prime!

The Eastern Push, Part 3

Over the weekend I had a few hours to sit down and get to work on the models I will need for this list.. and to watch The Thing.

Mostly I watched The Thing, and ended up carrying on with the assembly the following day. Everything in the picture above was assembled (with some part swapping on the Necromutants and Necromutant Leaders for more variety) but eventually I ran out of bases.

Of course, I am also 5 space zombies short. I found my old kickstarter stuff in a box and helpfully I had left it all on the resin frames. Everything, that is, but the Undead Legionnaires. For some reason I had cut them all off and tossed the parts loose into the box. I think I will leave the assembly of the last five for another day..

The Eastern Push, Part 2

One of the great things about a 500 point list is that they are relatively inexpensive to do, with many starter boxes coming in at around 400 points, with a single purchase (a character or a support squad) easily taking you across that 500 point line.

The Eastern Push is no exception, and can be built from the Dark Legion starter box, with the addition of a Nepharite of Algeroth, a box of 5 Undead Legionnaires and a box of 5 Necromutants. If you do that, I'd recommend using the spare Necromutant Leader model from the starter as the Squad Commander for the Necromutant squad - just remember to put him on a 30mm base! That then frees up a single regular Necromutant to act as the Squad Commander upgrade for the Undead Legionnaires.

Speaking of the troop squads, how will they work in this list?

The Necromutants are relatively straight forward - an 'elite' troop type squad that comes in at 19 points per model - almost double that of an Undead Legionnaire! They are decent in close combat, better at range (Ranged Skill 14 with an assault rifle that can get 2 shots, both at strength 12), and have good durability with tough armour (24) and a built in 1 in 4 chance to survive a wound thanks to Heal (5). They don't have a lot of abilities, unfortunately, but they should do a good job of protecting Quinzel while she's hanging out with them.
.

The Undead Legionnaire squad, however, is the workhorse of this list with a massive 17 models to manage during their activation. On paper they are shooty but slow, with a speed of 4 and the inability to Run, Rapid Fire or go on Sentry. They aren't fantastic shots either, with a Ranged Skill of 11 but they ARE cheap, and are allowed to field a lot more special weapons per 5 models in the squad than the basic troops of other armies. However, with the correct support, Undead Legionnaires can be extremely resource card efficient and are able to move across the table with surprising speed.

For starters, we have the basic Necromutant who is an addition to the squad and can act as the squad commander. Simply by having him the in the squad, we push the base speed of the space zombies up to 5. Next we have the Necromutant Leader attached to the squad. His passive ability Whip says that Undead Legionnaires beginning their activation within 6" (which should be the whole squad as long as he is in the middle) gain an extra point of speed, bringing them up to 6. He also has two Dark Symmetry powers - one to curse the squad the Legionnaires will shoot at (so that up to 3 casualties in that squad that turn will immediately rise again as Undead Legionnaires) and another to buff the strength of all weapons in the squad, making it easier to achieve those casualties in the first place.

Finally we have the By My Will ability possessed by Quinzel. For the cost of 3 resource cards, nearby Undead Legionnaire squads can make perform a free Walk action. Thus a typical turn will involve activating Quinzel and her retinue first, casting Cleansing of the Void onto the Undead Legionnaire swarm, then using By My Will to make them advance 5". Then when the Undead Legionnaire squad get their own activation, they can Walk again - this time 6" - and all fire. This is equivalent to all models in the squad running (normally 2 AP) and then shooting (1 AP), which would require the use of 17 resource cards under normal circumstances. This is why we want as many HMGs in the squad as possible. Quantity will surely win the day!

But how about the army itself? Luckily, I had a spare Dark Legion starter box laying around, plus a Necromutant blister I hadn't opened yet. I have a Nepharite of Algeroth model too (because he's a great looking model that really matches with his art work) but sadly he is already built and painted. So instead, I will be using my Kerheela model. Granted she's a Nepharite of Illian, but there's nothing wrong with a little variety! Finally, I'll need some more Undead Legionnaires as you only get 10 in the starter. I have about a million of them from the Warzone kickstarter but I have no clue where they are (and besides, the newer ones are MUCH cleaner sculpts and look far less fiddly to assemble). I'll have to order them in, along with some extra Secret Weapon bases for them all. But this is what I have so far..

Another project? Sure, why not

So today, one of my colleagues on the Warzone playtesting team said something blasphemous like "Undead Legionnaires are rubbish*" and I took that as a challenge to prove him wrong.

Mich Cie and I are currently running a small contest over on the Warzone Facebook group, and I figure what better way to prove my colleague wrong - who is, in fact, Mich Cie - than by doing it publicly? So here we go with my own 'entry' into the contest. The challenge is to complete a thematic 500 point force and when it comes to the Mutant Chronicles setting, what's more thematic than an endless horde of space zombies marching on a beleaguered defensive line?

Giant shoulder pads you say?

Well, okay, apart from that.

Yeah, that's right, space zombies.

Now, the rules of the competition say that the list must be legal (for standard OOC - I should add that part) but it does not have to be competitive. However, I don't see why we can't do both! After punching a few numbers into a calculator, this is what I came up with: The Eastern Push!

Characters:

Nepharite of Algeroth (90pts)
--Devouring Darkness (5pts)
--Cleansing of the Void (15pts)
--Total: 110pts

Necromutant Leader (50pts)**
--Bringer of Dark Tools (Free)**
--Portal of Undeath (20pts)
--Total: 70pts

Troop Squads:

Undead Legionnaire Squad
--15x Undead Legionnaires (150pts)
--1x Necromutant Squad Commander (19pts)
--6x Valcheck HMGs (48pts)

--Total: 217pts

Necromutant Squad
--5x Necromutants (95pts)
--Total: 95pts

Army Total: 492pts

That's right. Not a single Razide!

Now, I will be honest. I started out with two max sized Undead Legionnaire squads but although I could *just* about fit in the Nepharite, the addition of the Dark Symmetry powers really started to chip away at those squads, with compromises in weapons (fewer HMGs) or zombies (10 per squad would still be okay.. right?). But while I loved the idea of fitting up to 33 models into a 500 point list, I could see that it wasn't going to work very well on the tabletop.

The point Mich made was that Undead Legionnaires need a lot of other models in the list to really make them work and they rely heavily on Dark Symmetry buffs to make them more effective. As a Bauhaus player I know all about this because the same thing is often said about Hussars.

So, I dropped the second squad in favour of some bodyguards for my Nepharite, who I am calling "Quinzel".

Quinzel has three jobs in the game.

1) Don't die.
2) Push the space zombies forwards and keep them on their feet.
3) Stab vehicles until they stop shooting.

One of the problems this list will have is a low number of activations, so Cleansing of the Void is an early game spell to give the Undead Legionnaire squad some resiliency to all that fire they are going to have to soak up. Once the zombies have mostly fallen to pieces in the late game it can be cast on her and her retinue instead.

Devouring Darkness ticks the box for "Always be debuffing" - a mantra every Dark Legion player should live by. Casting D type powers doesn't cost DL spell casters any action points so even a cheap one like this is worth taking. If Quinzel is engaged by one or more capable CC enemies or worse yet, a character, you can get this pseudo attack in for free - potentially stunning your opponent - before you make your own CC attack.. and stunned models are hit in CC automatically. Nice.

Next we have the Necromutant Leader, who will be attached to the Undead Legionnaire squad, with both Bringer of Dark Tools and Portal of Undeath. The latter is a mechanism to help replace space zombie casualties by raising the enemy models from the grave, while the former will be essential if we actually want to kill some enemy models in order to turn them into space zombies.

32 shots in one activation sounds great (like.. Kodiak great) until you remember that 27 of them are at RS 11, and will almost certainly be over half range. By boosting the strength of the squads weapons, we are at least minimising the number of shots that hit but fail to penetrate the target's armour.

ST 12 on the 9 Kratach ARs
ST 13 on the 6 Valcheck HMGs
ST 14 on the 2 Belzarach ARs.

Not too shabby!

Next time I will briefly cover the two squads and start the task of gathering up all the miniatures I need for The Eastern Push!

* He may not have actually said that.
** The wrong points cost you say? Hm..

Another little project off the check list

I finally got around to sending off my vehicle wound tracker designs to Troll Trader a few weeks ago and I received the templates today. A few things seem to have gone awry with the cutting process but I can still totally make something usable out of these..

Somehow the hole didn't get cut, so I drilled it out. Note to self, drill it out before you glue the two halves together so that you can sand it down properly afterwards..

The long rectangular nameplate was supposed to be kept, but it seems like they threw it away with the rest of the cut outs! Doh! I made one up from a few layers of plasticard.

This had the added advantage that I could 'test' the idea of the wound tracker being made from acrylic as well, with the idea being that whatever colour the rest of the tracker was, the nameplate would be in opaque white acrylic so the player could write on it.

More putty..

I added some interior details to the passenger compartment (two Cap Light Infantry backpacks and an M50 assault rifle) then finally took the plunge and glued the front and back sections together, rendering the interior more or less inaccessible for further painting.

After that, more milliput, and more sanding once that dries. I'm so close to actually being able to start painting the exterior!

Almost there

Interiors done, ready for for final assembly of the fuselage and then we will see what gap filling is required above the cockpit and below the passenger compartment.

I see a grey helicopter and I want to paint it black

..but I cant. At least, not yet.

I finished filling the gaps and then re-doing the intentional gaps between the panels, theb sanded down the Milliput so that it is hopefully smooth enough that it will blend in with the resin once painted. Spent a little while trying to hot water bend the landing gear into the right shape as well as the passenger compartment floor on both halves. It looks straight now but I guess I will find out when I try to glue it together.

However, I've decided I want to paint the interior and the easiest way to do that is to paint it before glueing the two halves of the fuselage together. This is complicated by the fact that the two points where the parts join will both have gaps that need to be filled and sanded, which would make a mess of a primer coat if I put one down.

So Ive primed only the interior for now, which I will paint tomorrow. Then I can perform the necessary putty work and sand it, mask off the interior and prime the rest of the LARC..

Breaking the habit of a lifetime!

I recently backed the Kore Aeronautics kickstarter for their L.A.R.C aircraft so I could use it in my small Capital force for Warzone (it makes a pretty good counts-as Emancipator). This KS had a very fast turn around of just a few months and when it arrived yesterday I decided that no, I would not put this in my hobby closet to be built 'later' just like all my other KS rewards sitting in said closet.

I would build it right now!

Er..

Despite the number of parts, actually building the LARC Talon is pretty easy. The tricky part is the cleaning of the parts prior to assembly, and some parts will need to be straightened in hot water. The landing gear / skids and the back piece that connects the rear half of the passenger compartment and the tail (part 3, below) will both need it.

It seems the easiest way to build it is to attach the 1s and 2s together to make a front and rear sub assembly. Then attach part 3 and do your best to line things up, then the tail .

Several hours of sanding later to make the curves of the fuselage match up.. it looks pretty good even when loosely assembled and held together with blu tack! Of course, next step is gap filling followed by even more sanding..

Finishing up some other things..

How many panels is enough? Always one more than you have!

Progress! I burned through another sheet of plasticard (okay, two) but made some exterior panels, as well as some small vertical panels for the ends of the corridors..

This gave me the level of interior detail I was hoping for, without protruding too much from the walls to make model movement difficult (of course, the actual rooms themselves is another story). I painted them up and fitted them in place, then followed Tom Schadle's colour scheme for the Warsenal Cosmica terrain - more or less - since the base colour of orange and white is what Antenocitis use on their own pre-coloured Forward Base set.

..and here it is, finally finished!

The horse lives!

With a new pressure switch fitted, my compressor is up and running again so this weekend was spent catching up on those Antenocitis Workshop corridor detail pieces. I havent glued the parts together yet as I will do another weathering pass.. and maybe add some more white, since these panels were supposed to BE white, but ended up a light grey.

But all things considered I am pretty happy with it so far, and will create similar panels for the front and back walls of the habitat.

Back on the horse.. and then it died

So after a long time of ruefully eyeing up my Silhouette Portrait (which has been buried under a pile of hobby clutter for the last six months) I was finally motivated to break it out by the release of the Antenocitis Workshop "Forward Base" terrain, which I wanted to use on my Mars table for Warzone.

It arrived and was moderately fancy (not as shiny as the Cosmica stuff from Warsenal, but not as expensive, either.. so it just comes out ahead!) but the large flat colours give the terrain an overly simple look that doesn't suit Warzone. So with the Portrait literally dusted off, I got to work on some interior and exterior panel designs. Three sheets of 10 thou plasticard later, and I have these (left side is before punching out the cut away parts)

..which combine to make one of these!

..which goes here!

I was all set to prime and paint these interior panels and then when I started up my airbrush, the compressor died. I'm not confident I can get the desired level of smoothness if I paint these by hand, so for now I will have to continue making panels while I wait for the replacement pressure switch to arrive for the compressor.

Fudge! I was really hoping to finish off those corridor sections quickly.