Kill Team - More Games

Since KT post one I've played a number of games... more than 6... less than 12... dunno exactly.

My impression on the system is still that is very good. There haven't been too many 'marginal cases' (where I've felt like I've had to house-rule things) or unanswered questions leaving me stumped and requiring a research break mid-game. Fairly happy.

Works great for a narrative game where you're basically just making a story up with some random results thrown in. The fun stuff.

I've played mainly marines vs chaos marines but in the latest session I played a couple of games with marines vs bloodletter demons.

This was an interesting case for two reasons: i) the bloodletters only have melee weapons, meaning that the engaged/concealed order are virtually pointless, ii) the bloodletters are 2AP vs the marines 3AP.

It's interesting getting some different forces in there rather than (more-or-less) same vs same.

From my games so far I noticed that the chaos marines appear to be slightly better than regular marines with slightly better stats and options, however I haven't been using any tactics cards or anything like that so perhaps the factions balance out given those considerations.

The first game I played with the demons was 1 set of bloodletters vs 1 set of marines. The bloodletters were totally overpowered and then I realised they should have had 2 squads. 

So that's what I did next, and it was substantially better.

6 marines on the right.

12 bloodletters on the left.

At the end of the game I think the vp was 8 marine vs 4 bloodletters. The extra activation point seemed to help the marines, providing the ability to snag an object and then also do something meaningful like shoot or move.

The bloodletters on the other hand could only move and grab the objective, or charge and fight. so that felt very limiting.

That said they could be very brutal when they made it into melee, with a couple of marines were taken out in just one fight round.

At the end of the game (end of turn 4) there were only 3 bloodletters left...

...and 2 marines.

Definitely getting familiar with the mechanics and continuing to learn some other (such as shooting to/from elevation, climb, drop). There were also some updates and faq released recently. 

I repeatedly found the chaos heavy bolter guy was a bit of a waste, continually using his AP for grabbing objectives, and he probably fought more close combat than shooting actions (which I think he rarely did). 

Conversely if they climb up and get a good position they are making shots, but only use 1 AP of 3AP available, and the results of shooting were not compensating for it... so, yeah... not super efficient.

Still plenty of things to learn and try. I'm vaguely contemplating trying bloodletters combined with the pink/blue horrors as I think the tzenetch demons have shooting attack available. Alternately I could throw in some cultists (seconded from the Blackstone models)(though that wouldn't be an 'official' faction matchup).

Another observation is that winning the initiative at the start of the turn can really swing the fortunes of the force... which is fairly standard in these types of games. It certainly adds suspense.

I'm also considering getting a couple of 'character' models. For example, when I built the bloodletters and pink horrors I built them all as the basic 'soldier', so no 'icon bearers' or fancy whatnots. These characters might add some flavourful variation to the forces... however, it's possible there will be KT specific releases in the future rendering that moot. If I can pick something up for cheap on ebay etc I might consider it.

Update 2021-10-28

A new expansion box is being released in the immediate future which I'm strongly contemplating getting. It's Tau vs Sisters of Battle, again, not forces I feel strongly towards, but again, more variety.

Point being that they appear to be continuing to release and support the system, so hopefully soon some sets that I actually do like. Wait and see.

Until next time...

Kill Team - Build Progress

Still on a Kill Team kick... more or less.

I assembled all the models in the box. Still haven't got around to painting them, even undercoating. I'll get to it. One day.

I spent a bit of time reading through the alternate loadouts for both factions, as there were some either-either cases based on the models... i.e. you could select only one-or-the-other arm sets to fit on the model bodies.

The terrain, on the other hand...

Done! Yhay!

It got more-or-less the full treatment. I lashed out and ordered a can of spray leadbelcher (eq) undercoat which made that part real easy (and more inspiring). The paintwork is not terrible, generally staying within the lines but I'm sure there are some stray brushstrokes (that I couldn't be bothered with).

Most of the panels got two coats because the metal usually showed through on the first coat, so not a brilliant undercoat if you're planning minimum painting.

Anyway, left some metal showing (anything fiddly) and I barely bothered with the insides of the larger buildings at all.

After that there were copious sploshes of washes to darken and 'instamagic' the pieces. Didn't bother drybrushing the edges, so it then got two coats of ultra-matt sealer, and done.

Happy with the results. As good as I could have hoped for with very little effort.

I deliberately painted no blues in the colour palette. Don't think there's any purple either.   Stuck with warmer red-orange-yellow and some green... cos... well... orks.

This means the board is now completely game-worthy. I like it.

In adjacent news i did some work on the portable game table.  This is just a square mdf slab and uses ikea screw on/off legs. It's stable enough to not scramble model positions given standard use. It is only 90cm (3') square, and it accommodates the KT mat with room to spare for stat cards (KT is remarkable small, but I'm liking that tbh). Not quite enough for the dice container and gubbins as well so I made an extension that screws on easily.

It's intended use is KT and maybe Necromunda... so all 'small board format'. 

Update 2021-10-28

The Octarius models are now based coated black. Yet to take the enthusiasm beyond that.

I did manage to get the measuring tools finished off. Just Leadbelcher (eq) base, then washes of null oil, colour on the pips, and clear coat to finish.

Until next time...

Kill Team 2021

It feels like a long damn time since I've had any positive vibe for anything hobby. 

Working on Zona Alfa was a great project that lasted several months but I'd achieved what I was hoping to achieve in terms of the hobby, and with no games being played anywhere that seems to have reached something of a nebulous conclusion.

I've probably mentioned several times on here that Betrayal at Calth is/was one of my favourite games, or more specifically I really enjoyed the simplicity of the rule set. It was of course only a method of GW introducing the plastic lines of 30k marines, so the 'game' itself was always destined for obscure oblivion.

Necromunda was the closest thing I'd found in recent times to a comparable/decent ruleset for skirmish level games (i.e. not massed armies). I still like munda, but again, no games, so not much to be inspired for.

A couple of months ago an updated version of Kill Team was released. I'd been tempted by the previous version but never pulled the trigger. The latest incarnation however boasted alternating activations which is a must have for any system I'll bother with. And so I got the starter set.

I'm not a huge fan of kreig/guard and am generally ambivalent about orks, but never mind the concept of having some alternative forces to be moving around the board. I finished assembly all the krieg today and the orks are still on sprue.  But all the terrain is done. and tbh, it's quite substantial.

I'd been watching 'how to play' videos while waiting for the set to arrive (and it took it's damn time. gw delivery is really terrible compared to other online hobby suppliers i've used). Anyway, I moved some models around and threw a small number of dice the other day in an abstract learning session, and the rules seemed to make sense.

So today I assembled the board and played my first 'real' game. There was plenty of stuff I left out, like strategic and tactical plots (is there any point using hidden 'tricks' if you're just playing yourself anyway), and I used mainly basic weapon varieties and no special tricks or loadouts: regular tactical marines vs chaos marines. 

Not entirely surprisingly - it was very good. BaCalth was largely an opportunity to get out my regular 40k 28mm models and I think Kill Team will be taking over that role.

Some pictures...

Just about to start turn 2. The small size of the board keeps thing immediate and relevant.

This is something we discussed in the munda crew; that generally the small board keep things upbeat and interesting, at least with our small-board preferences, time constraints and expertise levels etc.

Conversely, and through no fault of the game, I found Zona Alfa to be something of a slog when playing with 'full sized' tables. I was using 6x4' (later 4x4') by default to inspire an 'exploration' feel to the game experience, but it felt like it diluting the action a little too much; 2/3rds of the game turns were just moving across the board to points of interest - the movement was a relevant aspect, but didn't fit a tight, round-limiting mechanics imo. Anyway...

With new Kill Team the smaller board made for more intense action.

Anywho... turn one both sides secured two objectives and moved up the board. This was 'the simplest mission possible in the book' while still having some objectives other than 'kill everyone'. Objects are emphasised fairly heavily in the stuff i've read.

I didn't have to refer to the rules tooooo often. Though I did review the cover/LoS aspects.

Here we're at the top of turn 4. The game was fairly narrative, with each model kind of playing out the most interesting move at the time rather than playing out a grand strategy. I think the game might lend itself to 'competitive play' if that's your thing but it will definitely allow for fun 'narrative' style sessions. 

By turn 4 both sides had lost... 2 models each.

The Chaos Aspiring Champion (sword dude) charged the marine, sword chopped him (only 1 Hit Point remaining), secured the objective, then shot the other marine with his plasma pistol... which now occurs to me is wrong because charge and fight are separate actions... so he did 4 things instead of 3... oh well. wasn't the first mistake of the game. 

This is the final state of the board. Chaos win 8 to 7.  Though it should have been 5 to 7 the other way, as I had one chaos guy secure 2 objectives in turn 2 (cheeky). A model can usually only perform an action (type) once per turn, this should have included securing objectives (so I stuffed that up too - oh well).

Here's the last standing tactical marine.

And the last standing chaos marine.

And that will do me for today. All up, about an hour of dice rolling. 20 minutes on either end for set up/pack up.

Without rulebook reads I reckon 30-60 minutes would get you though a quick game. Nice and quick. 

The terrain all fits into the start box - neat. The teams are small and compact, and the measurers and tokens quite manageable. Again, comparable to munda.

Anyway, that kept me entertained for a while.

Until next time... 

Necromunda - Ambot - A mini project

A couple of weeks ago, someone in one of the chats mentioned something about playing munda solo. I didn't recall this and had a skim through the solo rules which were actually published by GW.

The scenario is call   the hunt   and involves an Ambot.   Given;  i) the scenario mentioned one (though I could proxy something else in,  ii) not a lot of active hobby projects at the moment,  iii) i like the model and had kind of planned on getting one one day...   i found one cheap on ebay.

This is it done, ready for boxing.

The majority of it is lead belcher undercoat, then multiple washes of green over the 'armour' sections, null oil on the 'bare metal', and some minor detailing. Happy enough with the result.

I fully intend the play the solo scenario at some stage in the near future too.

Until next time...

Zone Alfa - Fishing (Fiction)

A quick intro story to accompany June 2021 Contest Entry... just for fun...

- - -

Kilgore had been lying in position for at least two hours, his gaze steadfastly forward, waiting for signs of motion. He acknowledged the sun tracking slowly across the autumn sky, panning the shadows incrementally across his vista.

The sun was set perfectly to cast shadows towards him, his approach angle within the grove precise; this was part of his plan, part of his method.

He had arrived the day before and camped fire-less, unobtrusively next to a sandstone boulder, all the while absorbing the base-level sounds, smells, and feel of the location. The grove was typical bush; eucalypts at the edges interspersed with gymea lily, casual bracken, some sandstone protrusions with small, grey flannel flowers growing tenaciously in the gaps – simple, rugged beauty in an alternate time.

Lying on his belly he contemplates fishing – this was the closest thing he’d come to fishing around here, with the putrid, toxic creeks, stock dams and pools. Patiently waiting, quiet - serene stillness lest the fish senses his presence and scarpers.

He was not against technology.  Had in fact set up a contingent of motion detectors earlier to monitor the wider perimeter for endemic wildlife or transient intruders. But catching the artifact was something he chose to do by eye and by hand. This analogue thrill was the biggest drawcard keeping him in this forbidding patch of hell; not that he overtly recognise that fact - though he acknowledged the rush of success.

He had discovered this anomaly a weeks ago by chance. Set back from the trail and over a small embankment, the area looked relatively fresh, not gouged and haggard as it would be once the anomaly had been there a while and noused things up. There was precious little sign of activity around it too, animal prints, trails, nothing.

That didn’t mean that his weathered 45 wasn’t sitting inches from his head, within line of sight and in immediate reach. Lying prone and focused in the zone was about as compromising a position as one could be in; but he had confidence in his overall process, one of preparedness, of reading the environment. If anything was stalking him undetected, then, well, it probably deserved a hearty breakfast.

Having more immediate business to attend to last week, he’d thrown a fist-sized rock into the grove, had seen the rock deflect out in a trailing halo like a wrong comet, and called that ‘preliminary recon’ before continuing with his prior assignment.

Now the medium size Vortex hummed with grave power not far over his head. The anomaly was for all practical purposes static.

After dropping his pack yesterday, he’d used the time before darkness fell to study the anomaly. He’d sensed signs of movement below it, a slow smudge in the periphery of his vision indicating that an artifact might be being carousing around in there somewhere, virtually invisible so close to the anomaly.

If it was moving then just maybe it would wander out far enough.

So now he waited motionless, waiting for an ephemeral blur to pass into vision and within arm’s reach. He fancied he’d seen signs of it right after he’d settled into position this morning, but he’d chosen to wait and acclimatize. It wouldn’t do to waste the opportunity; to knock the artifact back into the anomaly's core - or graze the anomaly and risk having it rip his arm right off - or more likely have the anomaly swell defensively, draw him in, and smatter him out again as particulate goo like a god-like sneeze.

This wasn’t his first dance, and it wouldn’t be his last - he’d decided that before setting out, and it was the only way to approach the zone.

A faint breeze swept through the foliage briefly and dropped again, rippling the shadows from the trees. A storm was anticipated to pick up in the afternoon and he was hoping to be heading back to the settlement before then – preferably artifact in hand.

The settlement had been abuzz with the prospect of some new missions being launched by one of the scientific concerns, looking for guides, protection, meat-shields with guns. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, contradicting his usual preference of rolling solo.

It wouldn’t hurt his negotiation position to literally drop a freshly plucked artifact on the table should he wish to participate though.

His periphery detects a movement, the slight change in brightness registering in that same place where his night-vision is the strongest. A ghost of a shape, a whisper, dust motes in sunlight.

His breathing slows, like it would before squeezing the trigger on a long shot.

The something moves into his field of vision, bobbling up and down like a phasing shiver, fading in and out of focus as though undecided as to whether it is there or not.

He gauges the input, calculates a path, watches for deviation, for aberrations in the vector. His concentration becomes fierce and singular, if ever there was a time for a predator to strike it was now.

His hand lashes out like a strike, his fingers curling at the computed apex, plucking at the tingling, energized air.

There is mass there too, he cedes with momentary satisfaction.

He hears-feels a sucking pressure escalate above him like a gigantic engine roaring quickly to life.

Rolling quickly to his left he snatches up the pistol. The anomaly howls as he dives away from the epicentre, clearing the clawing pull of the kill zone.

A backwash detonation of air shoves him from behind resentfully, tripping him.

Matt stillness settles within the grove in the aftershock of the anomaly’s indignant eruption, leaving a low ringing in his ears.

Kilgore waits on his knees, pistol in hand and eyes scanning while the ringing subsides enough for his hearing to partake in his protection once again.

Satisfied that the area remains clear for the moment he opens his hand and sees a glassy-smooth, brown moss/rock object sitting there. It remains cold despite the warmth of his palm, and distinctly lacks the nerve jarring effects of the radiation emitting artifacts. A Wrenched. He nods satisfied; radiation protection was always worthwhile within the zone.

He collects his gear - the backpack settling naturally into familiar position on his shoulders.

A breeze now ruffles the foliage constantly, accompanying the slowly progression of clouds far above – a growing weight of clouds.

Had the anomaly’s surge triggered the atmospheric change?

He racks the rifle, perhaps his luck will hold long enough for him to beat the rain back to base.

- - -

ende

Zona Alfa - June 2021 Contest Entry

INTRODUCTION

This is my work for the June 2021 competition in the Stalker7 fb group.

Goal was a 4 person crew based on Kontraband expansion rules. 3 pics max. Also 2 short paragraphs which I intend to violate but not by too much.

I put together a quick board just to get some in situ pics. Didn't actually roll dice.

Expedition X389

The four-member crew of Expedition X389 was put together as a corporately sponsored expedition.

A recent emission blighted the area around an established science bunker. Despite the toughness of these bunkers the occupants evacuated, reporting that a new anomaly field had established itself directly adjacent to the bunker - making the area excessively hazardous and also drawing exponentially more mutants to the area.

Expedition X389 was tasked with scouting the area and establishing the current status. Could operations be recommenced at the bunker? Was there anything left of the bunker to airlift out?

The Researcher (Portnoy) examines a nearby anomaly...

As zombies approach the Field Agent (Prost) attempts to unlock the airlock with the codes they have been given... Sooner! Sooner would be better!!

Crew Bios

Kilgore - STALKER - Bounty-Hunter

The quintessential seasoned veteran; the survivor that returns from hundreds of missions as his contemporaries fall to the deadly attrition of the Zone. A leader, notably apart from his crew – expect precise, insightful orders but never empathy.

Knopki - STALKER - Bounty-Hunter

‘Knopki’, Russian for ‘buttons’. He once boasted that he could hit any button on the target’s clothes he wanted with any ranged weapon. Then someone at camp actually called him ‘buttons’ and ended up with less teeth. Apparently he decided he liked the concept, if not the name.

Prost - SCIENTIST - Field Agent

Prost could have as easily ended up a lone free stalker instead of a Department of Science field operative – one way or another he feels he was destined to a life in these brutal environs. His scientific background and expertise enhances his instinctive feel for the Zone’s harsh whims.

Portnoy - SCIENTIST - Research

Whip smart, precise and tight mentally and physically. Also renown as being mean as f…  Any Stalker stupid enough to make a jibe at the Scientist’s corporate logo could find themselves in a snork lair instead of an artifact trove based on some subtle suggestion they vaguely recalled hearing in the Stalker bar... just before they get eaten.

Zona Alfa - More Terrain... of course...

...though hopefully amongst the last. Or put another way, my (extra-large) terrain box was able to accommodate these, but is now pretty much full and i don't want a second box.

After (re)playing through the video games I thought it might be fun to have a 'science bunker' to put on the table. This building is an iconic feature that actually appears in all 3 games - actually it's the only one that makes it into all of them, though the design of the 3rd one is a slightly different... anywho...

With that in mind I contemplated scratch building one from mdf, but didn't really feel like chopping the pieces up, even though the structure is basically an easy flat-top pyramid.

Anyway I trawled around on the webs and found this, from 'Knights of Dice' which is a Victorian company (happy to support local where possible).

Stylistically it's not a 100% match; a bit squatter, two entry ways, more gubbins on the sides... but a good starting point... plus, I wasn't intending to make a 100% replica. 

So that arrived (btw, these builds/plans aren't usually instantaneous, I often have a thought swirling around for weeks before I actually do anything with it). Built it, minus the gubbins and filled the bottom divot and patterns with wall plaster.

Also got some 'picket'-esque fences for around the suburban house pieces. 

Turned out acceptable. not perfect but good enough. The roof comes off but the inside is just bare (painted but no walls or content). Intended to be a slightly run down, possibly abandoned shell; possibly in use as a gang hideout or something. 

And the fences... again, acceptable. Could probably use another set as these only go around a single house (plus change), and I have 3 houses. The intention is/was probably to use them as an interrupted fence line, so some out the front and none at the back, and can use bushes to gap fill too... will do for now anyway. 

Wanted to get these squared away fairly quickly as we have game day coming up... not this weekend but next i think. So?   have some interest so will be setting up a board and running some demos... rona dependant.

I also got a couple of bags of green lichen for scatter bushes/vegetation, and am working on some bark 'rocks' also for scatter.   generally looking to soften the edges of the buildings and structures which are fairly stark and pristine. 

[Later 2021-08-08]

The following don't warrant a post of their own so just popping them in here...

Another set of fences. done in similar style to the first set. should be fine. The only mildly interesting change is that i modified the 'T' section, chopping off the smaller cross section so they're just smaller straight lengths. Should provide some options for different set ups. I could probably also cut down the longer sections if required but i'd prefer not to. 

After a fb discussion i made a couple of 'kit bash' models. Kit bash is pushing the level of effort used. These are Tyranid bits (arm weapons) which i knifed off some material, melted a bit and glued on some small lengths of filament as legs.

Fluff-wise this are 'spitters', little mutants that spit toxin. Most of the hostiles in my zona are close combat with the exception of the bandits and i'm looking to add some more 'ranged' options.

Hence these.

They'll be intentionally quite slow, but i'll give them solid armour roll and probably a 'pistol' level attack, might add some kind of toxin rule but not sure what that will entail (movement reduce by 1"  for the rest of the game due to agonising pain... maybe will reduction... dunno.)  

I also have a couple of models incoming for another ranged mutant. This is a 'bodak' which will have a primary 'face melter' attack using the 'flamer template'.  TBA WIP.

wasn't originally what i had in mind for the spitter but i actually kind of like them. Some of the non-standard mutants in my zone have a mutated vegetation theme, (the yowies)  and i like these guys as an extension of that. they might be the flower heads of a mutated plant that run around attacking threats to the plant or something.  kind of a triffid feel to them.

[update 2021-08-11]

"What the hell are those things? Don't get too close."

"They look like some kind of... ghak! aaaaurgh! My eyes!"

"Open fire!!! Open fire!!!" 

Painted up, magnetised and ready for boxing. I actually kind of the like them.

The hobby box is currently out of tuffs so they'll have to wait for that - potentially could do without it.

Need to whip up some stats for them still. 

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Solo Mission

Some pics from the game I played yesterday.

Got a few of the new terrain items I'd finished off recently on the board. Went for a 3x3' board. For the first time actually - normally I've just done bigger boards and played, 'whatever size that is'.

The smaller board keeps the Hot Spots close... which, it turns out, is super dangerous.

The Mission Object was bottom-left (the new 'tree people anomaly'). The new underground access hatches were HS's top-left and bottom-right. One in the middle of the board at the outpost, and one top-right on the second-to-rightmost generator.

The crew started on the track to the outpost. Sniper tossed a bolt at the central HS and disturbed some zombies. These were taken care of relatively easily.  The Scientists went up and checked the HS, no anomaly, so everyone booted up toward the MO. 

POI Scientists bolt tossed the MO and produced some mutants [gulp].

In the meantime random rolls were generating bloodsuckers at the generator HS and snorks at one of the Pipes...

These quickly started moving in from the party's rear, attracted by the gunfire.

The mutants quickly overpowered the scientists, taking wounds but are 2-wound critters. Tough.

ASSAULT Stalker was blasting away rather ineffectually and was also overwhelmed (being leader he has 2 wounds... and lost them both!).

SNIPER Stalker was pounced on by the remaining mutants and managed to remain Active (self-med-kit). But then the final mutant piled in,  followed by bloodsuckers from the back,  and snorks were well within range on the right....

Duh duh duaaaaaaah!

Called it there.... and it was called a tragic loss. Big time.

Several mistakes were made, probably the worst being triggering the MO with the team still spread out. Overwatch may have turned back the initial mutant charge. 

Was a silly rush really, there was no time pressure (9 turn limit : 4 + d5 : rolled 9/2 = 5). Wanted to see if I could hit up all the HS on the map as they were so close.

Was good though. Not all games could or should be victories.

The smaller 3x3' board was actually fun. Less hiking to get around the board. But as mentioned the proximity of the HS   meant the hostiles were an ever-present threat. Especially the fast ones - which all of these were... 2x8" moves meant they were on you in 2 turns at most. I'll definitely play small board again.

A house rule I use(d) was that at the end of the turn the HS have a chance of randomly triggering, releasing the hostiles even if you don't i.e. bolt toss them. This happened more frequently than the crew could handle and with tougher hostile classes. 

Was an impromptu session at the tail end of a public holiday so called it there. Was just nice to get the dice out.

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Kontraband Crew

The last post was about 3d modelling, and these are the results.

They are by no means high art, but they're done, boxed, and good enough for the table.

The Stalkers...

The Scientists...

Generally happy with how they turned out. 

I actually gave them a run on the table yesterday, just with standard ZA rules, not Kontraband variations.

The crew was swamped by hostiles at the end of turn 4. Sniper was still standing (just) with 4 pinned counters and had 1 mutant, 3 bloodsuckers and 4 snorks about to jump on him at the start of turn 5. Quite a failure.

The Scientists were extremely underwhelming. Although ZA standard doesn't play to their advantages the lack of firepower/armour was extremely obvious. If I were to tweak the crew for playing Kontraband I'd probably add another fighter and have just one Scientist specialist HVT.

Just need to finish off the bio's for these characters and this project is complete. 

Until next time...

Re 3D Modelling and Software

It's been some time since I've done any meaningful 3D modelling.  It could be argued that my current project barely earns the name but... it's something.

With a potential ZA hobbying competition coming up I wanted to 'compile' some bits/components/body parts into some bespoke STALKERS.  I have 3D files from Anvil and other sources and wanted to put them all together into a single model for printing, rather than printing out lots of bits and gluing them up.

With this in mind I decided (for reasons not entirely clear) to download the latest Blender software and have another crack at learning that. I had dabbled with it some... 4... 5 years ago maybe. At the time I was already heavily ensconced in Sketchup and had all the processes and hot keys for that in 'muscle memory'. Safe to say that Sketchup and Blender are ENTIRELY different beasts and I found learning a parallel set of processes/keys very frustrating - so I finished off the projects with Sketchup and ditched Blender.

With years to fade that Sketchup brain-programming I've found (re)learning Blender to be far from the chore that it was previously.

Opinions follow... (where opinions only reflect the software in the context that i use them. I've seen awesome end results from both)

Sketchup is quite... basic. Which is not to say you can't produce nice/suitable results but it's imo... entry level software. If you want to quickly map up a model of your backyard with lots of straight lines and some token furniture to see how it looks and get some distances and perspective, it can be super-quick and super-effective. I'd probably use the term 'light architectural' to describe it. 

I had a crack with another software that I can't remember the name of (TBA [ed: Tinkercad !]) in ther interim where you had to build up different adjacent 'layers', just placing object on object, layer on layer... that was god-awful, though I'm sure I didn't have all the tricks and knacks to operate it 'correctly'.

By comparison Blender is pretty hardcore, and while Sketchup (entirely for example) might have 100 features, Blender has 1000 - including animation, in-depth mesh editing and sculpting (which I think wasn't in there last time i looked at it). It's orders of magnitude more powerful and tbh like most software, you're probably only going to be interested in using < 10% of that functionality. Because of all this functionality there is A LOT of hotkeys, key combos, menus, mouse techinques... it really requires effort and study to dig the functionality YOU want out of it.

So why did I bother?

Partially out of curiosity.  Partially because even when i Sketchup-ing I believed it had the functionality I wanted for 3D modelling, but I was already in a Sketchup headspace.

Even with some hours in the driver seat I think it's probably harder to make a comparable quick-and-easy 'backyard sketch' with Blender. You can undoubtedly get a similar/same result but it's trickier... or there's more involved somehow.

Anyway i got some results and will be firing up the printer later today when it warms up a bit - we're just 2 or 3 days from the start of (damned) winter.

Manoeuvring and transforming the individual objects around Blender is becoming more natural, the sculpting mode is very handy, and I did some basic mesh editing/fixing of the models. I'm wouldn't say that Sketchup is bad (it isn't) but Blender definitely offers more scope for 3D modelling such as I'm doing. If you're looking to get into 3D modelling seriously and have used neither, then I'd probably start with Blender rather than start learning Sketchup 'habits'.

So that was something fun to keep the brain busy. However...

Multiple softwares... multiple ways...

I do find it annoying that there is so much variance in software, for example even just looking at an object. For example the   windows 3d builder  vs  blender  vs  photon slicer     ALL have different mouse button functionality for pan/rotating/zooming in their environments.

Yeah, you (re)remember before long which ones they use, but it's annoying.  Anyway enough whining.

Update - More models...

The hobby challenge is actually for a full crew, so 2 extra models required. Scientists this time...

Despite being scientists they still have hardware and are classed as Veterans so they've probably been out into the zone dozens of times and can handle themselves just fine in the field. Obviously they're not independents like the actual Stalkers, slugging it out day by day just to survive. They also presumably have government or corporate backing equating to perhaps better kit, avoiding malnutrition and gut worm.

Scientist 1 is techiest/nerdiest of the new models, classed as a Researcher, and will be the crew's anomaly specialist. There are new character classes which have specific abilities/skills/stats and so on.

Scientist 2 is classed as a field agent, and more a broad-strokes investigator (Point of Interest specialist - aka environmental hazards). The 'shootiest' class of scientist... they know the zone is hazardous and come prepared... though they're still limited in combat options compared to Stalkers.

The models are very chop-shop and I may get inspired to fix up a couple of ugly bits with green stuff and physical modelling depending on how the prints look.

The blender experience was really good - far more instinctive now. This is still the realm of 'assembly' rather than 'making', which would involve more extrusion and sculpting. But in terms of navigating the interface and 'feeling' the xyz axes... very good. 

update ends

Until next time...

House Party - May '21 - Munda Day

Didn't even have to reschedule this one (though rona played a bit part in the previous session being postponed).

Necromunda, being smaller boards than Epic (especially Mega-Epic) meant that just a 6x4 table-topper, plus an extra plank was enough to put two munda boards on the main table.

Ended up playing... 3 games which was more than sufficient.

A 750pt mission, a 1,000pt mission, and a 1,000 point 4-way uber-mission.

First games were me (van saar) vs dan (delaque)...

and tom (escher) vs gary (enforcers)...

we played specific scenarios, just so we weren't mired by the 'general ruck' malaise - aka to give us some focus.

the 750pt games were something like 'assassinate the corrupt enforcer' - where the team in the middle had a VIP target that they had to escort to the edge of the board, and the other team had to stop them.

This was quite hard as there's a lot of board edge to cover with very few models.

On my board the VIP escaped, on the other board the enforcers managed to shoot him with a sniper as he wasn't adequately meat-shielded.

I think we did lunch bbq after that. Weather wasn't appalling for (general winterly unpleasantness) and it was at least warmer than when we started.

We then went to our 1,000pt squads as a build up to the final mission.

This was my 1,000 pointer... I included melta/claw guy (2nd pic) mainly just so I could try him out/give him a run as he seemed unlikely to make a seriously built list... that said... 

The squad had Fury with twin sub-carbines as the Leader and Overseer skill, paired with Rysaph with a combi-plasma and fast shot skill.  This is a fairly common van-saar loadout that allows the plasma gunner more than 2 actions per turn as the leader can bequeath their actions to another model. so you could potentially shoot plasma 4 times. Or duck out, shoot, shoot again, duck back in. It's a bit cheesy, but cheerleading models isn't unique to this situation, and all crews have access to it. Davos the Melta/Claw guy for shiggles, and the rest are basic lasgun dudes with no armour or extra game to speak of.

The scenario object for second game was for the defending side (tom) to have 5 ammo crates and for me to run over and try to steal them. In our game there was a lot of death for the first 2/3rds of the game, and only in the last turn or two did either of us get back to the mission and start hauling crates away... actually i didn't get any but I kind of rolled up the right-hand side of the board, while tom had the left. If we had kept playing I possibly could have hauled one, maybe two away, though tom's gals would have been pot-shotting me the entire time... and we were down to 2 models each.

Sat out in the sun while we waited for the other game to conclude, around 2pm the warmest part of the day and the sun was nice.

Then we started a 4-way game, the Ambot in the middle was the target. It had some funky and unpleasant rules such as overwatching you if you tried to shoot it... or if you ended your turn in line of sight of it... or something...

I was entirely focused on getting my crew up to the Ambot with the intention of having the melta guy swat it good. Managed to avoid conflicts with the other gangs aside from a minor incident with a wayward dwarf (Enforcer hanger-oner)...

Escher crew...

Pic stolen from tom's insta...

With everyone loaded onto the elevator (which was out of LoS), one of the other gangers ran into cover and hit the 'up' button (and sneakily remaining out of LoS).

Melta guy hosed down the Ambot with a strength 8, 3 wound attack and melted it to slag. Done.

I fully acknowledge that everyone else was generally letting me stick to task.

That said the Enforcers and Delaque were getting distracted by having a bit of bif on their side of the board. The Escher did have their crew approaching the Ambot.

The 3 wound critter was a pretty tough customer though, and i'm sure the regular gangers (mine included) would have suffered several casualties beating it down the conventional way.

All good fun. I had a great day and hope the visitors did too.

Although we 'only' had 3 games, games are rarely quick activities, so getting 3 in was an a worthy effort. Think we finished up around 7pm... 8pm at the latest.

Until next time...