Bit of a mixed-bag post this one...
Gothic - Reinforcements
Managed to print out 3 Sword Frigates and 2 Dauntless Light Cruisers. Painting started obviously. This will remain on stick until the majority of the painting done to avoid splatter on the clear (x-wing) sticks - probably not too far away.
The idea with these is to run 2 squadrons of 3 swords providing the weapons batteries to remove shields, then the Dauntless will swoop in with the front Lances to make damage.
Should also be fairly fast in and out hopefully.
See how that works out on the table.
Also started working on some name banners for the ships.
[a wee update 2018-12-21] New ships almost done. They now just require a little white paint dot on the engines and they're boxable... which need new ship cradles cut into the foam.
Additionally, all the ships in the fleet are getting a little more colour. i'm going the white-based yellow/green that i had previously splashed on the ordinance bombers/fighters.
All the small ships (escorts/light cruisers) are now yellow-prow'ed. All the 'serious' ships are just getting a few panels here and there.
Still on new BFG stuff; a game buddy mentioned thunderhawk ordinance models. so i modelled some up and did some test prints. Actually, i've since printed out all the batch but am yet to desprue them (which is fiddly and boring)... and they need bases printed.
The larger print is a 250% scale test just to check the model is ok. The smaller blobby prints are actual size. they're ridiculously small but are at least vaguely thunderhawk-esque blobbys.
Outdoors
Sydney weather at the moment is a fricken mixed bag. Storms, beating sun, torrential rains, occasional cold spells.
Despite routinely getting pummelled more that absolutely necessary the coffee plants are getting bigger. The lower, older leaves are pretty weathered (usually removed) but the tops are proving resilient enough to the climactic stupidity. Really over Sydney storms at the moment.
Hang in there guys.
[2018-12-13]
Just an observation i made while driving home after playing BFG last night.
As gamers or game enthusiasts we often partake of several different games to various levels of fanaticism during our 'careers'.
As i've mentioned before i tend to prefer games with Alternating Activations (aka AA) (i.e. Epic, HGC) over UgoIgo games (i.e. BFG, WH40k).
For the non-gamers (i can only assume you're a fellow amateur coffee farmer... or lost... welcome):
Alternating Activations: The player moves one unit/model/formation and then the other player moves one unit/model/formation. The players alternate moving u/m/f until there all u/m/f have moved. This concludes the turn. Commence next turn.
UgoIgo: One player moves all their u/m/f one after the other. The other players then moves all their u/m/f. This concludes the turn. Commence next turn.
I actually contemplated briefly what chess would be like as UgoIgo... probably very stupid. White goes first... move, move, move, checkmate... game over.
Anyway, we were playing BFG and discussing list composition and something i was wondering about at the time - due to my Epic origins - was activation count. It later occurred to me that in UgoIgo activation count (the number of separate formations or units on the table) makes far less difference (especially) in BFG, and the role it plays is far different.
This is, in hindsight, fairly obvious. My driving reverie was more about the adaptation of mindset between games, rules, mechanics etc.
In AA we sometimes use smaller/less vital units to stall to make the opponent 'play out their hand', but this is pointless in BFG. This creates a 'con' of lowering the amount of fire being used by any single unit.
When it's '...Igo' all of my ships move, shoot, launch ordinance etc. There is no need (or possibility) to stall.
In BFG you actually have a nice advantage in that a single ship can target multiple enemies.
Having multiple ships allows you more adaptable positioning, the possibility of splitting enemy fire, reducing your damage .
Bottom line, i should probably try to better 'empty the cup' and review my fleet list.
[much later 20190704: interesting vid re early war gaming here. and funnily enough chess variants... ha!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-seIA9tukDs
Until next time...
Making some asteroids for Battlefleet Gothic.
There were a bunch of excellent celestial phenomena at the Newcastle event a few weeks ago (only saw the pic as i couldn't go) and i've been meaning to make some for a while.
Just using up leftover material as much as possible. Three 'bases'-worth for starters.
A few steps later these have developed a bit...
After some initial assemble i hit them with some black spray paint (which pock marked the styrofoam interestingly - will leave some of it there) and then some texture paint.
The white is acrylic filler 'paint', making some pocked areas smooth and smooth areas rougher. Mainly covering construction holes, rough joins, glue patches and gaps.
Nowhere near finished, but rushed to this stage (sans filler) for a FLGS evening game...
...and looking ok already.
Should be able to whack another coat of texture paint on it this evening then do some washes and shades over the weekend.
The connecting sticks need solid (as matt as possible) black. and the black bases will get some dry brushing and paint speckle.
Finally, the edges of the bases will have a coat of 'thunderhawk blue' (or approximate equivalent) to more easily denote the bounds of the phenomena.
Just as planned...
As usual pics are a little disappointing, the greys and brown are a bit more nuance than the camera depicts. Should look fine on the table.
Until next time...
Something different.
I think it was... two weekends ago, GW's Blackstone Fortress came out. Picked up a copy.
Hadn't heard about it until a few days before the release date but really piqued my interest.
Blackstone Fortress (from here on out, aka 'BSF') is a dungeon crawler game (exploration and challenges) rather than the typical balls-out battle game.
So there is combat (hex based system) but it is fairly concise; and working with individual models rather than squads, which can make it a bit quicker (as was/is Necromunda) and with fewer (weapons) options (and what options there are, are listed quickly on a character card). Additionally, rather than commanding generic, massed squads of dudes (and all the different load outs possible within said group), you actually have characters, and primary idea here is to improve and upgrade them over the course of the campaign.
There's a total of 8 playable characters, and another facet of the game's appeal is that it deals with the (to date) marginal factions within the imperial system (rogue traders, mercenaries, ecclesiasty etc). As with Necromunda (which focused on hive gangs) BSF adds new characters (and models) to shuffle round the board; rather than the ubiquitous imperial guards, marines, orks, chaos... ad nausium.
That's not to say that those can't/don't make a showing at all (esp chaos)... but... new stuff.
That said, i immediately found myself wondering... "what would a Marine play like?"... aka a deathwatch-esque character.
Easy enough to fluff in; solo Marine sent on a quest by his chapter to retrieve a holy wingding lost during an inglorious defeat eons ago... blahbity blah blah.
So i whipped up a character card, then put together a model.
He's definitely not from Imperial Fists, so am still working out a custom chapter name. maybe... "hunter's spear"... "angel's spear"... (yhay, new chapter project). Thinking of doing a tiny variation of colour somewhere but not sure where yet.
Nothing fancy paint-wise, just model on the table.
I noticed that the marines i already had (being quite old now) are really short compared to the other models out of the box. Marines are meant to tower over regular humans, and my old school ones were looking up to everything but the spindle drones and ratlings.
So, this is a primaris marine (guaranteed to tower imposingly), put together from multiple models out of the 3-pack box. Plus some bitz-box leftovers (mainly the weapons).
[update 20190116: the model has since had a touch of 'screaming bell' highlights in line with the new fleet colours]
So far i have been playing the game with unpainted models (the baddies are grey plastic, the goodies are red plastic - intended to stand out esp for non-hobbiest) but hopefully this project will kick start some painting for the rest of them (after a long hiatus on painting).
[...looks promising]
yhay, done. just a couple dozen to go.
size comparison.
iconed up.
skull... hello i'm part of the command structure.
angel spear... why not...
[turns out their fleet gets a reasonable show in.]
[later 1]
momentum holding... barely...
and i also managed to blat out the ur-ghuls, which were actually super-easy, being all organic and artsy.
also; all the models are going to be going on on clear acrylic disks... so a bunch of disks ordered.
i'm only ever likely to use these guys within BSF setting so can make use of the board art rather than tooling around with basing.
[later 2]
Bases arrived and painted models transplanted. bit shoddy but will do the job.
not overly happy with the spindles but affixing those tiny end points directly would be too fragile. The marine's pose is a bit weird (foot placement) so had to chock under the front foot with some offcut clear. shouldn't be noticable it on the board.
BTW the small bases are 20mm not 25mm (what the supplier makes), marine on a 30mm, and also have a 40mm.
Finished off the kroot. Moderately happy there - not perfect but board-worthy.
Chaos Marines also approaching completion.
Chaos Marines done. As usual the photos don't really do them justice... should work on that i guess.
I decided to go with a 'warplock bronze', rather than gold metallic highlights. In part cos i like the colour, it's a little creepier, and in part cos i'm out of gold.
Not sure which models will be on the tables next... possibly negavoltists [yep]. Will probably try to keep a group of hostiles and one character thing going. Adds variety to an otherwise boring process.
[Digressions Complete]
The Game plays OK solo (a main reason i like it) as the baddies are controlled at least in part by dice role 'AI'.
Aside from that, not a lot of other hobbying recently; no printing, bit of BSF (this), bit of writing, that's about it.
Back to BSF briefly...
This is the Character Card i slapped together for the Marine... homebrew only, entirely unofficial.
The dice stats are basically copy/paste from the robot card. Nominally attached to CLARION (ship).
[update 20190321: agility state has been upped from d6 to d8... they're meant to be faster, stronger better than baseline humans.]
weapons...
- powersword; copy/paste from chaos lord, also same as the inspired eldar character
- bolt pistol, same as chaos marine bolters but degrades quicker at greater range
unique actions...
charge *: allows a move and attack as one action. technically the hostile units can do this, though this could be explained as a combination of individual AP actions.
unique abilities...
apex training *: when attacked (close combat) gets an immediate counter attack.
metabolism: critical success can negate a grievous wound. robot has this.
inspiring *: one of the biggest changes. this Character doesn't collect inspired token (also means no rerolls which is a definite downside) but gives earned token to other characters (as nominated by the marine player). the character has no inspired state. this was partly to avoid making a double sided card. additionally, the hostiles only have 1 state. additionally, it's probably not too hard to fluff that marines are always inspired for combat (especially since you can get disco cards to buff regular characters to perma-inspired anyway).
the items marked with * are all unprecedented modifications (i.e. everything else is pretty much taken from existing rule-set or other character cards).
'charge' and 'apex training' reflect the character's hardcore combat experience.
i have used the character a few times and found him not to be especially overpowered. he's ok in close combat of course, but relatively slow compared to eldar/kroot, whcih means that getting him up there is part of the challenge of the character (much the same as the RT character in hindsight). pretty much a close combat version of the robot.
[update 2018-12-14: i dropped the card over at boardgamegeek on the BSF forum. generally response is positive so obviously nothing too crazy on the card.]
Until next time...
