Zona Alfa - Zona Australis

I wrote a doco back in... June 2020, outlining a zona in my own backyard so to speak, Sydney Australia.

I never ended up specifically using the document for campaigning, but it was a fun exercise...

Zona Alfa - Zone Australis

Overview

Zone Australis is a campaign setting for use with the Zona Alfa game/ruleset.

Zona Alfa is set in an alternate universe in which hazardous ‘zones’ have popped up at multiple locations across the planet; these zone contain ‘anomalies’ which are localised “fields” that warp the very nature of physics.

Although the zones have caused many detrimental effects (not least the closing off of the surrounding anomaly-stricken areas) they also produce potentially useful ‘artifacts’ imbued with - what can be termed for succinctness as - ‘supernatural’ powers.

Governments and societies struggle to come to terms with the new reality that has been imposed upon them; mass relocations and rising civil disorder threaten many nations; and through the disturbances, opportunist forces compete to capitalise by retrieving and peddling illicit artifacts for riches.

While large, (sometimes extremely publicized) zones are present in the Ukraine and Canada, other zones exist elsewhere across the globe; sometimes in the middle of nowhere, sometimes in suburbia, some have even been discovered upon the ocean floor. So far contemporary research suggests that the more powerful zones appear to develop closer to sites of radioactivity - reactors, mines, and especially dump sites and sites of radioactive mishaps.

Zone Australis

A notable anomaly zone in Australia is focused at Lucas Heights on the far southern edge of Sydney. Lucas Heights has been synonymous with nuclear science in Australia since the 1960s and the facilities include several generations of research reactor – no power generators, but facilities for producing medical and industrial resources.

When the zones appeared, Lucas Heights quickly bloomed numerous powerful anomalies, and many lesser anomalies were reported in the surrounding region. Fortunately, much of the surrounding area is bushland. That said, a number of smaller settlements in the area were dramatically impacted and the resident rapidly evacuated.

The somewhat fortuitously located military base at nearby Holsworthy cordoned off the area and maintains an exclusion zone – at least on the primary thoroughfares.

This anomaly zone does not appear to be expanding, and official scientific enquiries are undertaking to understand and catalogue the hot spots in the area.

Forth Wall

The suburbs used in this campaign are real places. I am moderately familiar with the area as I used to ride my motorcycle through the area many years ago, and also had friends living near Holsworthy. Fun.

The main campaign map shows greatly reduced distance and altered positions in order to fit the content to the map scale I had in mind. It’s appropriate to think of the map as an abstraction of the area - technically the general locations are kinda, sorta correct and I have used (extremely vaguely) similar road layouts/shapes etc just for fun where possible.

Campaign

Like most zones across the globe, Zone Australis is beset by opportunistic souls looking to profit from the artifacts that can be obtained illegally within the area – a risky proposition to be sure, but with the dearth of societal disturbances besetting a perhaps overly sheltered society, one that increasing numbers are willing to attempt.

The main map (below) shows the core of Zone Australis - this is the core location of the disturbance - the epicentre of the most potent and dangerous anomalies. The military’s exclusion zone extends well beyond the area shown (maybe twice the diameter of the map area), but this is a precautionary buffer as there are only a handful of weak anomalies reported beyond the immediate area shown. Unfortunately, the large exclusion zone provides a substantial ‘border’ that determined individuals can and do easily slip through.

The campaign starts at the ‘Woronora East’ segment, progresses ‘anti-clockwise’ (‘Wilderness North’, ‘East Hills’ etc), and culminates at the ‘Lucas Heights’ segment.

Each of the segments will be discussed briefly to describe what is known about that particular segment.

Board

While building a whole map-size board is practically unfeasible, the various zones should instead be seen as an abstraction of local terrain/features/content. ‘East Hills’ for example is largely suburban, and the map provided shouldn’t be taken literally. Instead games should be played with ‘more suburban’ style terrain, and the individual maps can be seen as a small actual piece of the that larger segment.

Segment 1 – Woronora East

The campaign starts in ‘Woronora East’, a small village on the river front. The village – a mix of old houses and a couple of takeaway shops/corner store - is abandoned/evacuated. The river is traversed by an overpass bridge and a small local crossing – both have been destroyed by anomalies and are impassable. There are only a few mild anomalies in the area, and scavenging dogs seem the prevalent lifeform around the streets, though malevolent presences often increase after dark. The campaign progress to the north between the cliffs.

Segment 2 – Wilderness North

The next segment is ‘Wilderness North’, this is predominantly flat grasslands and woodlands. There is a section of swamp and an island which displays the only interesting anomalies around, and there are no notable structures in the area. The overpass is inaccessible from this segment due to its substantial height. Mutants seem to gravitate to this natural zone and are frequently ‘culled’ by military from the overpass. The campaign progresses to the north-west.

Segment 3 – East Hills

The next segment is ‘East Hills’. This is a suburban area, with ritzier homes toward the waterfront. The locals have been evacuated. There are a few mild anomalies in the area, and packs of scavenging dogs compete with elusive zombified residents (or careless stalkers) for sustenance. The campaign progresses to the south-west across a pedestrian bridge spanning the river.

Segment 4 – Voyager Point

The next segment is ‘Voyager Point’. This was the bones of a new estate - set to pop up in Sydney’s overwhelming desire to cover the entire area in suburbia. Although the segment looks straightforward, it contains a number of powerful (and very deadly) anomalies, which thence contain the booty so sought after by treasure seekers.

Bandits and mutants are rife in the area. The campaign progresses to the south-west along the road.

Segment 5 – Holsworthy

The next segment is ‘Holsworthy’. This segment contains part of the historical but still very active military complex that is trying to confine and control the exclusion zone. There are military facilities here and the occupants are most likely going to be hostile towards any intruders. Very few anomalies are present and will most likely be found toward the playing fields to the north. The campaign progresses to the south-east along the highway.

Segment 6 – Wilderness South

The next segment is ‘Wilderness South’. This segment features a prevalence of sheer cliffs, and thick bush terrain. There are few anomalies about, most will be found toward the north - the overpass crossing the river toward the north is blocked by one such anomaly. Many mutants and feral animal have ended up in this area, possibly dissuaded by the guns at ‘Holsworthy’ to the west. The campaign progress to the south-east along the highway.

Segment 7 – Woronora West

The next segment is ‘Woronora West’. This segment contains the other half of the former riverside village, but on this bank the anomalies are far more potent and their effects far more destructive. Mutants and zombified residents lurk within the settlement. The campaign progresses to the north through the gap in the cliff-face near the river.

Segment 8 – Lucas Heights

The final segment is ‘Lucas Heights’. This segment contains the research complex and support facilities - mainly industrial business but also some service businesses. The area contains the most powerful anomalies thus far catalogued on the continent. Mutants and bandits via for dominancy amongst the damaged infrastructure, apparently ignorant or fearless of the radiological products which are slowly contaminating several sites. Periodic military sweeps to protect the official scientific research efforts can also be encountered from the still functional bypass road to the north-east – that said it’s also the more expeditious route out of the zone. Get in, find your loot, and boot it across the overpass.

Another Type of 'That Guy'...

No, you're not missing the first part of a multi-part post. This is not a series.

This is... something of a vent... a rant... a way of putting down something somewhere so I don't reply to a post that pissed me off.  I feel I may be going on tangents, but screw it, this is my blog.

That Guy

For the non-hobbyists, "That Guy" is a term for someone who hobbies who is, for one or more reasons, deemed unpleasant, i.e. "Don't be like that guy."

Generally, these points of friction come down to social ineptitude.

Hobbyists are sometimes considered anti-social, misfits, nerds... etc.

However, in my experience hobbyists (those with social nouse, which is the vast majority by the way) are decent people, enthusiastic, friendly, intelligent, helpful, courteous, and fun to hang out with.

The stereotypical "That Guy" is unwashed and stinky, picks up other people models with cheeto covered fingers without asking, and hovers over games giving unwanted and unsolicited advice and commentary.

There are very few people actually like that, again, in my experience. I've met, personally, none, though perhaps certain environments attract certain types of people.

Perhaps the adage that if you don't know who the slut in your group is then it's probably you may apply.

An aside...

Most of us are aware of those types of things and avoid doing them. Which is just basic courtesy.

Everyone I know asks before picking up models.  We don't interject in games, or if we really have the urge will do it subtly or just save it for later, or when it's not important *.

* this is another one that really gets my goat (probably because I encounter it more than the other more obvious things).  If you have a cunning strategy lined up and someone comes up and points it out, "ooouh, you better watch out for the xyz unit sitting there, they're deadly. hahahah!"   That makes me furious.   It happens. It's annoying.

I was at Cancon playing a tournament... at least 2 years ago, maybe 3... anyways.  It was stinking hot, being the middle of summer in Australia, which is hot . And humid.

Anyways, we were in a large hall with hundreds of people, with no aircon to speak of, and playing for hours.

I went though 5 tee-shirts on both of the 2 days we played, having spares in my bag and also in my car because I knew it was going to be nuts. I even bought a non-descript shirt at a stall when I ran out on day one.  Used deodorant of course, but it was just super hot... and I sweat... not by choice.

Point being that I was aware of the situation and did what I could to try to minimise or mitigate the issue.  Not sure how much it helped, but at least I tried.

So what's the point?

We have in our sphere an alternate That Guy who is more of a socially-awkward-to-the-point-of-toxic type.

Post 1:  "Hope everyone had an epic Jan meet!"

Post2:  "Not really I did not have the phone number of the guy who said he would attend in January to play a game of xyz, and he did not turn up. I played a game of xyz on my own and left after 2.5 hours."

Some background...

This persons is definitely on the social interaction groups (above post from there obviously) so they have the ability to work out what is going on. They have the ability to communicate. 

This is a person who insists on bringing only a couple of games types that they want to play.  There are polls on the group saying "whatcha playing?"  so people can plan to tee up something appropriate before the day.

Yet this person brings their stuff and when they inevitably don't get a game they get huffy.  For the last... 3 meets now they've played solo games, in what I consider a passive aggressive manifestation.

The games played at the club change in cycles, sometime game xyz is popular for a few months, then it switches to game abc, then on to something else.  This is sometimes referred to as... blerk... 'meta'.

Typically I personally have been involved (played) in popular systems within the club.  BUT, if everyone decides "hey, we're playing ghi game for a couple of months."  then I'm not going to crack a shit about it.  I have stuff I like, stuff I don't, but what I won't do is insist that they play stuff I like.  That's super childish and would classify me as a That Guy in my own opinion.

I know that if I didn't want to invest in a whole set of new models for something I probably am not going to want to pursue long term (i.e. I dislike 'fantasy' settings, i.e. medieval elves and dwarfs and knights etc),  then I could probably borrow some models from a game buddy in order to get involved and play along with everyone else.  I'm open to trying stuff.

If I  REALLY  didn't want to play then I also have the option of having a couple of months off, or going along and just hanging out and supporting the group atmosphere.

If I rock up to the club, set out a monopoly board and insist that somehow someone owes me a game, then I wouldn't be surprised to lose (whatever little) standing I might have within the group.

And the hobby sphere is a small one. Once you know people well enough (games buddies) you can get away with some (light hearted) shenanigans. But if you isolate yourself by bad behaviour then people won't want to play with you, and then you're screwed.

Additionally with the prevalence of online interaction, people beyond your immediate sphere can hear of your (bad) rep which can make getting games even harder.

The hobby is a swinging door. If you really like a game then suggest it, organise something, but be open to other people's interests as well.  Courtesy.

Why?

Why am I writing this?

I'm tempted to reply to the post with some options and suggestions.  This is in part wanting to help, in part being frustrated by the negativity it's adding to the group (which tbh is quite superficial, perhaps mildly amusing).

I'm not looking for conflict but this person's ongoing attitude, and inability to acknowledge the situation is grating with a few people who don't deserve it.  Like most of us nerds I don't need to be in a situation where I rock up to meet day and have someone to avoid due to bad blood.

At the end of day I can overlook their shortcomings, we all have them, and I appreciate people overlooking mine.

On the other hand it's frustrating and sometimes you just want to shake someone and yell "wake up to yourself" in their face.

But, I'm not their parent, relative, or otherwise obliged to tell them how to behave. They're definitely adults (as in grey beard) and it's up to them to make their own decisions.

Things would go easier for them and people might be more inclined to accommodate their interests if they didn't piss people off. And they do.

I know I'm no longer willing to waste a meet day doing stuff with them as I may have previously.

It's not great that such discussions about said post do happen out of hours so to speak.

At the end of the day does it matter?  Nope.  In a group of misfits does it matter if someone is a bit misfit-ier than others?  Also nope.  Hobbyists are generally a tolerant bunch in real world terms, despite hard held fanaticism regarding our particular games, factions, and nerdy inclinations.

It's not really my loss.

Rant complete.

Until next time.

Epic - Chaos Marines

And we're done!

After the Eldar I swore off printing more Epic, but here's another army done...  [sigh]

I'm pretty happy with the results. There's enough there to play a full strength game, plus some extras to allow some list build flexibility.  And enough variety within the unit types to have some visual/narrative interest.

And now a few closer shots...

And they're boxed up.  Ideally I'll get another Modifx bag [ed: yes, yes I did] like the other armies... probably some chaos dice too.  It's almost inevitable.  I like things the same.

Compared to previous armies the quality of these prints is notably sub-par.  Difficult to see until you look closely, but I know and can see the issues if I look closely.  But, from arms length they're fine for gaming.  That's a big 'pro' of such small models,  the details are minimal and if an arm is a bit flat or a hull is slightly warped you don't notice it as much as you would on a 28mm model.

I'm now (of course) swearing off any more armies (again), especially another self-printed army, and I can't see myself getting models from 3rd party suppliers either,  I do like the (potential) control of what I add to the force (when/if the damn printer works).

My "goal" in so far as I have one is to have a mix of different forces that I have as options (for demos or just if I want some variety in what I use myself).  I have Black Templar (Marines),  Deathguard (30k Marines),  Custodes (Gold Marines HA),  Biel Tan Eldar,  and now Chaos Marines (Spikey Marines).

So Marines, Eldar and Chaos Marines in terms of 'main' factions.  Which is an ok effort.  In an ideal world I'd probably also make a Tyranid army, and an Ork army, and perhaps a Imperial Guard themed army in order to cover ALL the main/old school factions.  But my appetite for making more has definitely evaporated.

And I'd like to finish off the Titan/Knights army replacements given I have all the Titans and Knights and "just" need to finish off the support units. But like the Custodes and Deathguard they're kind of a sub-faction.   Options are options of course.  Aaaand they actually play as two different factions which is also kinda fun.

Bag

Bagged up...

With the printer semi-permanently offline and no resin available I 'handmade' a token for the bag front.  This was a transparent acrylic disc (like I use in bases... I have a bag of these odd sized ones) which I glued on a chaos symbol to and then dremelled out the recesses... kind of looks like carved stone/metal and I think it still fits the theme suitably. 

There's plenty of room for dice.  Haven't ordered any yet.  Not in a great rush, but I'm sure it will happen at some stage.

Fluff

I have yet to work out precisely who these guys are.

They're too chaosy to be Kraits Divergant  and they're the wrong colour to be  Sons of  so I'll have to revise their history.  A fun little project for when I need a change of pace.

Event

I'm actually working on organizing an one-dayer Epic event at the game club. Not until July as we have an OPR campaign starting up which should be finished by then.

Not sure if these will be used there as doing the (minimal) organizing and also learning a new factions in and out may still be excessive for my tastes.  Quite likely I'll probably just run the Templars.  Chance to give them another campaign badge too.

Theoretically I might be able to get a learning game in with these guys between now and then with another local who, frankly, I largely copied his army and ideas for this build.  So he's experienced and can give me some pointers.

Until next time...

Terrain Tips

I've been working on a small project for Zona for a little while and using some techniques I now take for granted, and thought I'd jot them down.

They're not ground breaking, just things I find useful when modelling and constructing things.  More specifically they're material choices for doing certain tasks or getting certain results...

- - -

Glue and Plaster

I like 'wall fixing plaster' (not sure the technical name).  It's a good filler for bigger gaps, and it works to texture styrofoam so it doesn't look like styrofoam, amongst other things.

My tip for this is to mix in pva (wood) glue.  maybe 1/4 glue to plaster mix.  It will be a little wetter than normal plaster, kind of like peanut butter consistency. 

The main advantage is that it dries to a harder level (than plaster or glue individually), and makes for a less chalky finish than just plaster too which is a handy by-product.

It's still somewhat porous, so if you want it 'smoother' then I sometimes drop some superglue on it once it's dried.

- - -

Glue and Sand

The second tip is similar.  Glue and sand.

I normally use this as a basing technique for larger/terrain bases, not for individual models (though i've seen that done too).  I normally squirt on the glue and spread it with a brush or paddle pop stick or similar.

Then just cover it with lots of sand.  Let it dry, pour off the excess sand and brush off any grains that don't stick solidly.

This provides a nice textual surface for the base.

It can also be used to provide support for structural elements in your terrain piece.  For example if you have a vertical post attached to a flat surface you can glue around the post, drop the sand and this may provide greater stability to the post.  Or use to fill around the bottom of walls connected to a flat surface etc.

No reason you couldn't use just glue, but using sand provides visual interest (if you don't mind a grottier effect) and I find that the sand provides an even harder material than glue alone.  Glue can be a bit flexible, but the sand stiffens the material into a more rock-like structure.

Can be used around the bases of trees if you mount them on mdf pieces to add a flow to the transition between base and trunk.

Can be used to add some (deliberate) grunge/interest to flat mdf sheet pieces like roads or hardstand concrete rather than just relying on paint. Large, flat surfaces are usually pretty boring and although effects can be achieved with paint alone (including texture paints, for which this is a homebrew alternative) actual texture is an option.

- - -

Craft Wire Barbed Wire

Not my idea, it's a stolen and probably common one.  Barbed Wire/Razor Wire is quite easy.

Get some craft wire - we have a 2 dollar shop that sells craft stuff, specifically for making homemade jewellery, necklaces or bangles or whatnot.  This is thin and relatively malleable (not stiff, like spring wire).

Take a few meters of the wire and double it over.  Put one end in a power drill, and start twisting the wire until it's well entwined, not too much, and enough that it's good at scale.

This provides an impression of barbed wire, and doesn't have sticky outy bits/spikes.  From memory I have seen people insert bits between the two strands before/during winding, but it's unnecessary in my opinion. 

You can wrap it around i.e. a pencil to get the jail razor wire look, or string strands across beams or whatever.

- - -

Bonus Tip - Bottle Brush Trees

It's totally legit to buy cheap stuff and repurpose it.  These are xmas decorations I picked up at Aldi during the season. 

I don't have a 'snow' themed board at all so all the white crud on the tips of the foliage was annoying. I used a wire brush to brush it off.  Made a mess. Took a while. But got it off, enough.

Here's the trees mostly done.  I gave some of them another preen and for extra-chunky stubborn bits I squished them off between my fingers and the stuff crumbles off. The brush gets the majority of the work done quickly though.

After this they get a quick brush through with green paint(s) of your choice. Perhaps a green wash for variation and to get i.e. some of the top wire or any remaining white bits coloured.

After this the white bases get a treatment of glue and sand before base painting.

- - -

And that's it.  Nothing earth shattering, but useful and cheap.  I've used them many times.

Until next time...

Epic - Chaos Marines - Build - pt4

The second batch of 'makes' is now done.  This constitutes the remaining units I need to finish the army. So... yhay for that!

Not many numerically speaking compared to the first batch, but mainly large models.

It's probably 90% freshly printed models and some... kit bash or bought models.

There's two sets of different fliers.

Two sets of four defilers (the crab walker thingies, and yes one is facing the wrong way... there's always one dingus).

Plus two deathwheels,  one feral titan and  one decimator tank.

The deathwheels were somewhat painful to do, given I was still getting a small bit of warping on the prints, but I managed to patch them together and i'm still filling gaps and trying to make them a little less janky. Mainly the wheels themselves have gaps that need filling where they were joined.

The feral titan is store bought from the Warmachine range. Super easy to fit it into the list though and to be honest I really like the model. I had to cut and glue the right arm as it had that bolter looking thing on a left army out of the box.  Fun little project though.

The decimator is a 'chop shop' model. The center part is a fresh print. The tracks are stolen from a filament print stormblade I had in the old imp fist army.  The turrets on the sides were new prints that I had to cut and sand down into a semblance of fitting.  Not ideal, but it's an unusual model and was thoroughly sick of printing by this stage (these were the last things I printed before boxing the machine away again, and warping was getting worse again).

And that's that.  Still working on smoothing surfaces and gap filling but shouldn't be long before I can start on the painting.

All of them will be getting the quartered scheme, except the titan which will be predominantly a black scheme, just with dry brushing.  It's more a dark-mechanicus ring in so it's gets something different.

All up 17 models to finish (paint etc) before the army's all done.

Re Printing...

I had a big ol spak attack about my Photon printer some time ago.

This rant isn't going to be as bad, but I've had more than a few issues again.

Turns out there are 'environmental' issues that can affect the hardware according to the interwebs.

I ended up making (after some research and suggestions) some paper templates as it seems like there are electrical shorts (or something) that can happen within the machine.

It seemed to have a positive effect.

I started out with a bunch of ugly prints, but sometimes it was just printing 1 layer then crapping out the print job entirely (spontaneous rebooting).

I guess the point and reason for the retrospective is that these things are temperamental, and they do/can suffer from environmental effects, even if not the type that I was exploring/contemplating earlier.

So if they can short out (or something) based on contact with the resin tray, or the vat holder screws or whatever, then perhaps humidity or temperature can also have effects.

I feel more justified that I wasn't just going mental for the sake of it.

Anyway, the printer is boxed away, I have no resin left, and no desire whatsoever to print anything further. 

Until next time...