Zona Alfa - Human Plant Anomaly

I'm just going to publish this and keep WIP adding to it as it progresses.

One of the things I enjoy about the fb group for ZA is the appreciation of terrain and 'props' in making the game come to life. 

A recurring comment within the group references the 'human plants' in the movie Annihilation, which commonly includes the pic below... 

There's actually some variations that are fairly nifty too.

Haven't yet seen the movie yet, though I have a dvd on the way from ebay and have watched some clips for it. The movie did not rate well (which doesn't surprise me really) but the visual concepts are fun, creepy and well realised.

Yesterday I thought to myself, "have a  go", so I did. Base structure made from left over printer filament, then some twist-tie wire, greenstuff and wood glue. Then some paint. and finally some static grass and foliage. I really like this birch foliage.

Here is the end result. Not a great pic, but quite hard to capture it. It's not finely detailed, more of a capture-the-concept piece.

Standard model to show size...

They're not really detailed or menacing enough to be zone hostiles, so I decided to make a couple more which I'll then put on a single larger base. This will be an anomaly feature piece - aka a mission objective.

There is a new supplement coming out/intended for ZA which will focus more on exploration and skills rather than being combat-focused.

It is anticipated that this will require more anomalies, so I'm slowly reviewing the anomalies I have with the intention of sprucing them up and/or potentially make some new ones.

There was recently a build-an-anomaly comp on the group which I didn't have any inspiration for, was a great idea and some fantastic pieces were presented, I just couldn't think of anything that felt inspired.

Will put up a 'finished' pic once the extra models are complete and the piece is done. Am out of twist-ties.  [later: just remembered i had some fine gauge wire that i used for epic trees. wire and wood glue done.]

2021-03-18

Finished off the figures, then wood glued the bases to a mdf plate.

Then a layer of wall plaster to hide the figure bases. Will take a while to dry given the current weather (wet as). After that, base coat of black, then astrogranite then some finishing. Will probably get a small stick to make a log just to add something to the ground cover.

2021-03-21

Well, project done.

It will do, looks better in real life as usual. I may give it a coat of clear spray once the weather dries up (so much rain). We'll see.

In other adjacent news I retired 2 of the 3 crystal anomalies that I made a while back. The only one i kept was the swirly clear crystal one which I always use in games anyway. I did the base up a bit as it was not finished. Just the usual astrogranite treatment.

Until next time...

Adeptus Titanicus - CoD March 21

Saturday was CoD March 2021 meet.

My first time back and rolling dice this year and if memory serves, my first since December 2020 (checks diary - where I rolled Epic with my titan list, and got smashed horribly! eeek!).

So everyone was playing 'other games' systems this month so Epic got a month off which is all good and fine.

The usual Epic-sketeers were spread across Battle Fleet Gothic (BFG), Kings of War, and I manage a game of Adeptus Titanicus (here-after AT).

[Spoilers: I have been assembling an AT force for quite a while now and there is an unpublished and extensive build log post (which will get well edited). As well as having other projects and things to do it's suffered from not having pending games approaching thus requiring completion. Additionally I like to paint my 'good armies' all at the same time to get consistent colours etc, I've had a few things on order from caster which I've only just picked up at CoD etc. Basically I wanted the entire force assembled before starting on (at least) any detailing.  This force will be replacing my Epic titans and knights forces so there's probably a bit more than would be required for just AT.]

I had an intro game back in 2019-09, and then two learner-but-includes-most-rules games in 2020-08 2020-09. Then last weekend. So a long time between session - probably enough rules remained in memory to be useful. Four games for me all up, and this was my opponent's second.

More or less matched forces, with variations being changes to weapon loadouts. About 1450 points per side - Warlord, Reaver, 2x Warhounds, sundry small knights.

The table was roughly 4x3 so the action/combat was virtually immediate. Last time I put on way too many buildings - less this time.

No real official objectives but it was a 'book mission', just basic 'cruiser clash' lasting 4 -> 6 turns depending on dice rolls from turn 4 onward. 

The Warlords immediately took positions across the middle of the board and blasted away at each other with the smaller titans and knights moving around a bit. Wont detail too much of the battle. I learned new stuff and re-remembered old stuff and by turn 2 we were both getting more confident with the rules (again).

This poor city copped a number of stray heavy plasma blasts (missed) that would have turned most of it to rubble unfortunately, and one of my Warhound got knocked back into one building by a concussion weapon.

There was not a whole bunch of strategic positioning but we did both try to keep the titans moving around rather than just blasting away napoleonic style.

Here we're about turn 4. We've both lost our knights and have damage on Warhounds and Warlords.

Fairly obviously, the red titans (mine) are targeting the blue Warlord, and the blue Reaver and Warhound (left of pic) are lining up my Warlord (and came close to doing some major damage).

The blue Warlord fell (just) to the barrage of fire with barely a dice shot to spare, exploding and collapsing where it stood. The explosion reached the Warhound and Reaver who too some hits.

Unwilling to take another round of hits my damaged Warhound rushed into the firing line of the blue Reaver (which had a melta gun that was scary powerful), valiantly blocking the Warlord.

The fun part: the Warhound exploded - rolled 10 which is the most powerful catastrophic damage possible - so my Warlord, the blue Reaver and Warhound all took hits. As luck would have it the Warlord shrugged most or all of the hits off with his shields, but the Reaver took maximum damage to it's legs, effectively sending it out of action.

Thus the game ended with a bang at the end of turn 5 (rolled up 'no turn 6') and that was that.

I was exceptionally lucky from about turn 2 onward to get and maintain the initiative (go first during that particular turn, which you roll off at the start of each turn), so I was able to at least attempt the most advantageous sequence of moves - It seems to provide something of an advantage or at least guide the strategic setup for that turn.

- - -

Despite feeling like we were head in the rulebook for a lot of time (probably not as much as it felt like) the game was quite enjoyable.

I find it not entirely dissimilar to BFG in so far as the models require conscious manoeuvring and have directionality and limitations on turn capacity etc - aka, unlike Epic which is generally move however you want up to your speed distance (War Engines and AC aside).  

It is a fairly slow game to play in part because of this (disregarding reading time) - again, especially by comparison to Epic. Each titan has a control panel that reacts to damage or maneuvering and there's engine power to monitor, so far more 'simulator' than Epic.

Looking forward to playing again, hopefully it won't be a year or 6 months until next time though. There are possible half a dozen people working on AT forces at the club so it's nice to have people to play.

And it's given me suitable motivation to get to painting again, so that's superb. 

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Remote Outpost

Original Draft 2021-03-01

The zone is a sprawling area, home to many unique, fascinating and deadly things. 

No on remembers the exact purpose of these outposts so old are they, but a few can still be found in the more inaccessible areas of the zone. That they exist at all in the zone's remote depths speaks of a rather large logistics budget - so most likely they are military sites, forgotten or abandoned.

It has been posited that they were intended as refit or resupply points, but for the military it seems far easier to get around by helicopter than bush-bash to these inaccessible locations.

No known examples of such architecture exist in the populous areas of the zone; demolished or replaced with something bigger and better where a permanent military ground force was needed.

The remaining examples of these small but strong shelters are highly prized assets for both bandit and free Stalker alike, and have been the focus of many intense and bloody territorial battles.

No constructed roads lead to any of the known examples, though the current inhabitants will often clear their own paths through the undergrowth if vehicular access is desired. Other are surrounded by dense bushland where the nefarious inhabitants wish to remain inconspicuous. 

- - -

Although I don't need anymore terrain for ZA I saw a similar structure being built on FB and it just triggered the 'make it' impulse.

It's all mdf for the main structure. A few paddle pop sticks around the doors and roof . The upper roof comes off.

The larger door will be like a garage 'roller door' and i'll get some corrugated cardboard for that.  The two 'people' doorways will have doors over/in them  and the large window areas will have bars across them. 

Will use a texture paint over it once done as it's intended to be a concrete structure.

Update 2021-03-04

The clear varnish is still tacky but close enough to call it done.

Added a bunch of stuff around the windows doors, air vents etc.

Theoretically the downstairs area is a garage space or storage area, accessible by the roller door or solid metal side door. There is a hatch and ladder that goes up to the top room, and from there another solid metal door allows access to the roof areas.

Moderately happy with the end result.  It should be table useable though it's not as generic as the houses or barns.

The roof of the top level comes off, and theoretically the top level door opens though it's probably clogged by paint and whatnot - I really didn't put much effort into the door design but decided that I wanted it closed and 'secure', rather than open and dilapidated.

I ended up putting bars over the window areas - the bars are vertical rather than horizontal to make it harder to climb up them.

I don't hate it, but I really liked the clean shapes of the original (mdf) structure. It would probably be a bit abstract for a battlefield setting though.

The doors of the lower level are all glued up, and all doors are covered in texturey stuff to break up the surfaces. I didn't want too many downpipes or ways for critters to narratively get up the sides. It's intended to be able to function as a stout little fortress - as inaccessible as possibly unless you're deliberately let in.

Oh, and also I painted up another two of the anvil prints I did. Mainly just because, but also trying to get the paint mojo flowing again.  The rest of the prints have been bagged and boxed, probably won't bother with them (only a couple left anyway).

The first batch of prints I painted were 'assault' weapon themed - these ones have 'specialist' weapons.

Like the first batch they are very basic paint job. They're loaner/demo level models.

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Compound - Extra Containers

A while ago I ordered some Containers by '4ground'.

I'd noticed them previously and they seemed like a neat idea.

I've only just got them finished off due to being away and fairly low on hobby motivation.

The pieces present, as advertised, some various assembly options which is cool. 

Something of a mixed review follows. While they do what they say they do on the box, I'm not rushing out to get more.

A lot of newer mdf kits (they included) are adding thin/cut cardboard 'detail' sheets that are frankly a bit of a pain. I'll admit that my assembly efforts were rather lacklustre (probably 'end of project' malaise... though I believe I'm inheriting another mdf factory in the not too distant - hopefully a little smaller than the other one).

Additionally these particular kits come 'pre-painted' (a primary gimmick) however the paint rubs off and stains your fingers as you're building them. I've scrubbed the surfaces down after building them and given them a spray of clear lacquer to stop any more marking but... slightly annoying. In hindsight I prefer raw mdf and then paint them myself. 

They will fit the theme of the table well enough (probably more so that the containers I have already which are near-future/'space-ier' than I'd have liked).

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - paperCut Crew- Mission 2 and 3

 I managed to bust out the 2d twice in the last 2 days, seemed a pity to use the things once. 

Setup and pack up are noticeably breezy, so no excuses there.

The crew got a name "paperCut Crew"... cos hilarious right...

The following batreps are intended to be paper thin [ba dom tsh], and both missions were impromptus 'focused' missions, rather than free-for-all scavenger hunts. 

Mission 2

Mission 2 was "clear the bandit camp", there were 3 hotspots (around the edge) and the main structure (MO)  in the middle. 

The 3 HS had to be cleared before the MO could be triggered.  With the exception of the first HS, when all of the hostiles of a HS were killed, the next hotspot (random) was automatically triggered at the start of the next turn - keeping fairly constant pressure (plus the inability to inspect the HS and adjust). Similar, once the HS were cleared the MO automatically triggered next turn.

The hostile list was limited to combinations of bandits and dogs, the bandits have kennels for their attack dogs yada yada.

The crew started at the bottom right of the map.

A bolt toss triggered the first HS bringing out 2 dogs and an anomaly (should have also brought out 2 bandits but I misread my chicken-scrawl writing). These were picked off easily.

The next hotspot was triggered at the start of the following turn, bringing out 2 dogs and 2 bandits (correct). Something of a battle around the central building...

Consideration had to be given that many bandits would be appearing from the central building before too long. 

The last HS brought out 4 dogs...

The MO point triggered and brought out 6 bandits and an anomaly (I hardcoded the MO to be 'you rolled 10' on the hostiles table)...

Med-kits used toward the later half of the game but I don't recall the crew being in danger of being overwhelmed at any particular stage.

JANE got bopped by the first anomaly but med-kit'd that away, succeeding the following turn.

Mission 3

Mission 3 was "clear all the hotspots" (as the mission objective) and there were 4 hotspots. Nominally there was a 'water filter' feature to the left, a 'control building' at the top and 'service sheds' on the right. HS distributed around that evenly.

This was back to the full hostile list.

A long lob'd  bolt toss triggered the HS at the 'control building' producing just 2 dogs (inspect adjusted), which were easily picked off. 

The crew broke into two groups with JANE and JAKE heading for the 'water filter', and everyone else heading right toward the 'service sheds'.

The 'water filter' produced 2 zombies, one got shot by JAKE, and JANE pummelled the other one to death in melee.

JANE continued to check out the cleared HS and JAKE high-tailed back to the other group. The closest HS produced 4 dogs. One was shot in overwatch and 2 made base-to-base with MURRAY and JAKE (should have run slower). The combats were fairly one sided, MURRAY melee-ing his enemy and MEG aim-shooting the one that ran into JAKE. PAULO sniped off the one that didn't make base contact.

The last HS produced 4 bandits and an anomaly. Again, med-kits were soon to used more than any other time previously in the game, but the crew managed to pick them off despite picking up various pinned markers (lots of failed armour saves even against a rather piddley assortment of weapons) along the way.

And that was that - mission complete. Again it was a bit of a milk-run.

I'm contemplating upping the ante to Threat Level 3, though the sessions at TL2 have definitely help build and strengthen my rules knowledge (even though I'll quite frequently 'oops' something here and there).

With my trip all but over (heading back tomorrow) I don't imaging that paperCut Crew will get much of a look in anytime soon. I'd probably prefer to leave them here for future visits. They've been entertaining and I thank them for their service.

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - 2d- Mission 1

So, what's got two thumbs and feels like they've wasted 200+ hours making terrain and minis for Zone Alfa...

Not entirely true. Not entirely accurate. Not at all actually, the hobby is enjoyable in its own right. 

So what the hell are you rambling about chris?

Some two to three weeks ago I went walk-about in a limited capacity, visiting family in the nation's illustrious capital, due to borders opening yada yada. 

Given I can work from anywhere, I packed light and decided that I "wasn't going to do any hobbying" while I was away - though I did pack Blackstone Fortress (which has received about an hours worth of attention) just to have a 'real game' on hand.

I don't know specifically what sparked this concept but I got it into my head that it might be a splendid idea to do Zona Alfa... with those paper cut out thingies...

So that happened.

I found/settled on some papercraft models from an artist called 'darkmook' that were published around the 2010-2017 time frame.

I've never done paper art type stuff before and probably safe to say that I won't again. I whacked together a complete (though admittedly very primitive) game system in a weekend... which is pretty damn quick if nothing else.

Today I managed to give these bits and pieces a run on the board...

A five person crew (very familiar though not entirely the same as my original crew). The crew were named (nice and easy to write it onto the model) - JACK, MEG, PAULO, MURRAY, and JANE. 

The terrain was a last minute inclusion with boxes for structures, some walls and 'trees'.  Threat Level 2 with 4 Hot Spots, 1 Mission Objective, and rolled up (5 + d5) 6 turns.  A fairly small board and I wasn't using infil/exfil/hostile turns - so just a casual milk run.

Someone triggered the closest hotspot revealing some bandits (fluffing this to a rag-tag team of scavengers) and an anomaly (hastily created from post-it notes - forgot about anomalies).

The crew is sporting smg/pistol combo   except for one guy (PAULO) who has a dmr (designated marksman rifle) and pistol.

I played the 'individual spawn location' method (thanks ash barker @ GMG - roll d10 1/2 range scatter for each model, rather than set the first model and dump everyone around them) and two of the bandits attacked on the way out (interrupting MEG's overwatch - damn!).

d10 <= TL + each deployed squad member = attack immediately, else seek cover and activate in normal order.

The bandits were soon mowed down however and a second hotspot triggered... Mutants. 

Fortunately by now I knew to set some alert/overwatch and MURRAY who was rushed by the closest mutant managed to pop him in one round of melee (what a beast!!).

The crew repositioned for the assault on the MO (mission objective) in the centre of the board.

JACK (true to LEADER form) failed 2 bolt tosses, then managed to stick the last - triggering 2 dogs (rolled 1 - phew), which were obliterated by overwatch (alert).

Called the game there (start of turn 6) as our resident scrounger JANE triggered the mission objective unopposed.

So... ... ... I can honestly say that that despite this being in no way as intricate as my 3d models and (with all due modesty) flashy-ass terrain, it was thoroughly enjoyable, engaging and surprisingly immersive - which is 100% what I look for in a game. 

So was my prior hobby time wasted? No, of course not... fancy-ass terrain etc undoubtedly adds to the experience - but for someone looking to check out the rules with something more than clothes pegs and dice, perhaps check out 2d models as a starting point.

If I were travelling more frequently I'd perhaps be interested in a STALKER-centric model set, but these models absolutely functioned as planned. They'll definitely see more table time before my trip is through, and I'll probably stash them somewhere for next time I visit.

This is my notes from the session (included for my own archival purposes)...

and this was my on-the-fly cheat sheet for stats and whatnot...

Don't get me wrong, I still prefer my 3d get up, but it's hard to go past a complete system that can effortlessly be picked up with one hand and stored in a shoebox (instead of a 90L plastic crate)... albeit not particularly fancy, realistic or pretty... 

Until next time...