Dungeon Crawler in Space - Blackstone

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...