Space Hulk; MEGAforce Board Game Night

The recent MEGAforce evening saw a return to a Games Workshop classic from 1989,  Space Hulk.

What is Space Hulk?

The game pits small squads of Terminator Marines against Genestealers in the cramped confines of an abandoned  drifting spaceship. 

The Marines have storm bolters and heavy flamers while the 'Stealers just have speed and very sharp claws. 

There are lots of great rules features, such as putting Marines Overwatch (and the attendant risk of bolters jamming), the use of 'blips' to hide the number of 'Stealers out of direct line of sight, and the time limit on the Marines turns, that give the game the right feel.  Its fast and deadly, and if the Marine player doesn't move fast, it goes very badly very quickly.

I've played this before, many moons ago, using T'Other One's nicely painted minis, complete with metal Terminators (rather than the plastic ones), but it was Grim's first go. We shared control of the five Marines, and our objective was simply to disable a terminal with a flamer shot. T'Other One had hordes of stealers trying to stop us.

Ready for Action, the flamer burst marks the target room

One Marine down

Two Marines down

Victory! (for the 'Stealers)

The mission didn't go well for us, T'Other One did a great job of keeping up pressure from multiple directions. Eventually we lost the Heavy Flamer, and with it, any chance of winning. The remaining Marine fell the following turn.

I could blame our bad luck with the Command Dice (a d6 for extra Action Points) or T'Other One's good luck with the blips, but to be honest, he kept us on the back foot (boot? claw?) from the start.

Take Two 

But Space Hulk is a pretty quick game to play, especially the early missions, so we tried again.

This time we had better luck and forged ahead. There were fewer 'Stealers and we managed to burn the launch controls, albeit at the cost of one of the marines who opened the final door and selflessly stepped into the room to allow the flamer to fire. His sacrifice will be remembered.

Only one 'Stealer to hold off, Victory is ours!

Over recent years we've played quite a few old GW board games, many of which I remember with fondness from back in the eighties and nineties, and mostly from my collection. But they've generally felt clunky and a lot less fun than the newer generations of games.

But Space Hulk stands up very well. It's still a slick rule set, simple enough to grasp, but with lots of potential for tactical thinking. It's also exciting, and captures the tension of a beleaguered crew beset by swarms of enemies.

There were a couple more editions, the most recent with some amazing minis, but the first edition is still, to me, the best.

I usually give a tier ranking for our board games,  well,  if you're looking for a tense fast paced action shoot em up, then definitely S Tier.  What it does,  it does very well. 

I'd go as far as saying that I prefer it to Aliens, mostly down to the less complex rule set. It doesn't have the cooperative side that Aliens has though. 

GW released a couple of supplements, introducing Librarians with psychic powers and Genestealer hybrids with weapons, but the base game is enough for me.

Somewhere in the loft of shame I have my own copy, perhaps it's time to get it out and get it painted.

Painted Hobhound and Birthday Dwarves

Another Hobhound

When I first discussed what to use for the Severed Hands' Hobhound pack, and even when I showed my painted suggestions,  I was resigned to only having one of the official minis. 

Well Bodvoc managed to acquire me a second one,  and in a different pose too.

Painting

Painting was pretty straightforward,  I used Vallejo Game Color Khaki as the basecoat for most of the fur, and VMC Scorched Brown for the mane. Then highlight with VGC Bleached Bone or Leather Brown before giving everything a wash with Marine Juice (or Sonic Tonic). Finally,  a bit of extra highlighting then the usual varnishing and basing. 

The new hobhound

Both 'official' hobhounds

More Dwarves

I didn't think one Hobhound merited a post on its own,  so here are my latest acquisitions, funded with some recent birthday money. 

They were all picked up on evilbay under their original catalogue names; Tribesman, Retainer and Clan Chief from the C06 range of Dwarves from the mid 1980s.

Dwarves by Other Names

But for collectors of the minis from the second edition scenario packs, they are better known as Beli, and Snorinn Fimbul from Bloodbath at Orc's Drift and Arka Zargull from the Tragedy of McDeath. 

Picking them up under their original names does mean quite a saving, some of the prices for minis with scenario connections are staggering.  Orc's Drift only had two brand new minis; Osrim Chardz, the dwarf leader in the final battle, and Hagar Sheol, the Severed Hands chieftain.  Brommedir and Erdolas do have their names on the tabs, but they were originally available in the C08 Elf range. I wonder if more minis were cast to meet demand, with the new names on the tab?

Snorrin is the son of the Dwarf leader at Ashak Rise, and will probably end up facing the Hobhound above.  I don't have his father, the mini is available, but so far I've only seen him as Borinn, rather than just a C06 Veteran. I do have plans for an alternative mini, more on that later.

Beli is one of the patients at the hospital at Orc's Drift.  The poor chap has suffered a head wound, and is subject to some of the Psychology rules that were part of the fun of second edition.  He is a companion to Gymlet (C06 Decrepit Wizard), who I painted up a while ago.

Arka Zargull is the leader of the Dwarven miners in one of the McDeath scenarios, and also a punning reference to the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers during the Miner's Strike.  As this was 40 years ago, it seemed relevant to get him, bringing my total of McDeath minis up to 2.75 (approximately).

100 000 Views, Many More Thanks

With all the excitement of Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge,  I didn't post anything when I reached 100K views.

It may not be much compared to many hobbyists' blogs,  but I'm delighted. 

I'll save the usual long waffle until, say, 111K as things are rather busy at the moment,  but thank you for reading,  thank you for commenting (it's how I know people are interested) and if you follow,  you're very special. 

Paint What You Got Challenge Completed

For the past 48 days my hobby time has been dedicated to Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge. I decided early on to use it as a spur to paint stuff for the first mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep, with the option to start on the second mission if time allowed. So how did it go?

Pretty well actually. While I didn't finish some of the terrain that I'd planned, and I never got on to mission two, I've got a good base of Heroes and Creatures for the game. If the Rangers' choice of Companions isn't too exotic then we can play the first mission easily.

Let's have a closer look at what I managed to paint, if you want more details, use the PWYG tag, or just look at the last couple of months posts.

Heroes 

Four Rangers, three are based loosely on characters we used in our games, though given that we can change equipment between missions, this isn't too important. All three were kit bashed from various sprues, especially the various Frostgrave sprues from North Star Miniatures.

The fourth Ranger is a Reaper Bones Dark Elf.

Four Recruits, the basic hire in the game, wannabe Rangers who might not be individually strong, but are cheap. These are based on the Oathmark Human Light Infantry sprue, with a few bits from other sources.

Two Men at Arms and one Guardsman, These Companions are drawn from Alladore's army. The only difference between them is equipment. Men at arms have a hand weapon and shield, whereas the Guardsman has a two handed weapon. They all use the Oathmark Human Infantry bodies, with other bits from various sources.

Three Archers, in the game, archers use either bows or crossbows. These also use Oathmark Human Infantry bodies. Other bits from the same sprue or from the Frostgrave Soldiers sprues 

Creatures 

Mission one requires zombies, giant rats and giant spiders. I managed eight zombies, four giant rats and four spiders, (well initially I only had four spiders, but I managed to get some more. So, technically I didn't have these at the start of the challenge, so I'll not count them). These are all Reaper Bones minis, acquired from various Kickstarters.

Other Stuff 

I painted up some Reaper Townsfolk as surviving villagers and even managed some bits of terrain.

The biggest terrain pieces are the Nest Trees for the second scenario, but I also finished the Reaper Bones pumpkin filled cart.

The List of Shame 

Not everything got finished, of course. 

One thing I wanted to craft was some buildings with accessible interiors. I built one that works well (though the interior dimensions are a bit cramped) and started another, but the weather hasn't been good enough for using my airbrush outside, so they'll have to wait for spring.

I also crafted various rocks.  These are all painted, but the bases still need some work. 

I based up a lot of my random collection of wargaming trees, but again, the bases need work.  

My plans to do some hedges didn't get very far, but I've got some ideas to pursue. 

I've also got more Rangers and Companions to paint, kit bashing them is becoming an obsession. It makes more sense to work on stuff for mission two though, essentially gnolls.

Every Day's a School Day 

I learnt some things as well. I experimented with Marine Juice (or Sonic Tonic, and the Sonic Sledgehammer now calls it) and I think it's currently my favourite wash, especially for the lesser heroes. It's a good shading stage for the main characters too.

I also worked on my Slapchop technique. I've sort of used it before, but I've got a much better idea of how to get it to work, and I think I've improved. As part of this, I've persevered with Vallejo's Xpress Color paints, and I'm much happier with them now.

So it's been a great couple of months. It's helped me focus my hobby time, without it feeling too constraining. 

I'm already looking forward to the next one, and I'm wondering about trying Dave's Terrain challenge in the summer.

Thanks, Snap Fit for mentioning PWYG, and thanks Dave for having me onboard.

Rangers of Shadow Deep Nest Trees

The second scenario in the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission calls for four 'Nest Trees' with the possibility of a fifth turning up during the game.  

I've said previously that I'm avoiding building or painting anything too specific for RoSd, but these can be mixed in with other trees in any woodland and they will fit in very nicely in any MESBG scenarios set in Mirkwood.

The Original Trees

I didn't want to scratch build trees, so I used pre flocked plastic trees from a bag I got on Wish. I know a lot of stuff on Wish is poor quality or even outright scams, but these were OK. This bag of mixed sizes might well appeal to thrifty gamers, but if you buy it for 28mm gaming you'll find the trees are small. I got them for smaller scale games, and some will be appearing in 6 and 10mm Fantastic Battles. For the nest trees I'm happy for them to be on the small size for 28mm, I think they'd make impressive 15mm trees.

Sample tree straight from the pack. Very regular and very green 

Preparation

Now the colour of the flock is, being kind, 'garish', and I wanted dead looking trees anyway. A bowl of very hot water softened the glue holding it on, and some laborious picking off soon got rid of it. I was actually impressed with how good the glue was, I've had experience with similar trees where a light draft blows most of the flock off. 

I also took the time to bend some of the branches out a bit, warming thoroughly in more very hot water, then setting the new pose in cold water.

The trees need bases, I've used GW 40mm bases and 60mm MDF in the past. These are 50mm plastic bases from Reaper, included in their recent Kickstarters (I use clear bases for my Reaper stuff, so these are surplus).  A hole nearish the centre for the end of the trunk, then hot glue both underneath and a bit round the top to keep it in place. Originally I planned to use the glue gun to melt the plastic trunk a bit to shorten it and provide a better fix, but the plastic wouldn't melt just with my hot glue gun. I ended up trimming with scissors to give different height trees.

Based and ready for painting

Painting

After basing the trees were given a black prime from a rattle can. Then a heavy brown dry brush (because most people think tree trunks are brown), followed by a grey dry brush (because most tree trunks are actually greyish).

Webs

If I'd thought ahead, I'd have got some of those Halloween fake spider webs, but I didn't.

Instead, I'm using herbal T-bags. These aren't the 'paper' ones you usually find (which actually can contain plastic), but a more 'fabric-y' looking material.  I suspect they are more common in 'exotic' teabags - these were a gift.  I don't know what they are made of, but if unused, they can be teased out to give a reasonable web effect.  The contents will come in useful later, so they are put on one side.

The tea bags in tea bag form, opened out, and teased apart to make webs

This seems to look best when some of the material is caught on the branches, then pulled out before reattaching it further along the tree. It can also be teased out by hand,  just experiment and have fun. 

Of course, these webs aren't sticky, so I used a bit of watered down Mod Podge, with a quick spray of isopropanol first. Too much of this can spoil the delicate web effect, and I wonder if just a spray of matt varnish would have done the job.  Once the sealing mix was drying, I added a few more bits of the material to bulk out the webs.

Finishing Off and Details 

Then it was just a case of adding basing materials, bearing in mind that I wanted them to look like dead or dying trees, and anyway, there's not usually a lot of vegetation at the base of a tree, the tree out competes it for light, water and nutrients.

I gave the bases a coat of coarse sand, but this didn't really look right for woods, it was too bare and needed more texture. This is where the contents of the tea bags comes in, broken up a bit, they look suitably like branches and twigs.

Then I added a few bits of decoration; some skulls and a skeletal torso from Mantic Games' Undead sprue, and some 'spider eggs'. 

These are pellets of 'Pearlite' (a product sold to bulk out soil and improve drainage for houseplants) though small polystyrene balls would work just as well or better. I mixed them into some PVA glue and then just dolloped it on where it looked good. Once dry, a bit more of the webbing to 'nest' them finished the job.

So there they are. Five web entangled spider nest trees.

I'm really pleased with how well these went together, and the materials were pretty easy to source, especially if you use polystyrene balls rather than vermiculite. 

A Recruit faces off against a Giant Spider near it's webbed tree, unaware that another Spider lurks behind him

The Wish trees are decent enough if re-leafed. In fact, I'd suggest that they are a good source of tree armatures for a very reasonable price, if you're happy to buy from Wish. I've got some more in the process of having better foliage added to give me some better trees, which I really must get around to finishing.

Note that I started these quite a while ago, but they remained unfinished as I wasn't quite happy with the bases. I wanted to do a bit of scenery as part of Dave Stone's Paint What You got Challenge , so quickly finished off the bases and here they are.  

More Rangers of Shadow Deep Gaming; Scenario 1 again

We played through the Abandoned Village again last night.  Now the whole of MEGAforce has tried it and we're ready to move on to the next scenario. 

We held out to the end,  but two Recruits,  a Warhound and an Archer fell.

Fortunately, all recovered, although one Recruit is diseased.

 

Back row; Wuffles, Daryl, Ruut, Archie, Brig, Haflas

Front row; Bob of Tatherwan, Valdar, Omoranti

I managed to take a few pictures this time,  so here's some of the action.

Zombies close in on the village

'The Blue Lady' took out Brigg and Wuffles and proved remarkably resistant to the Heroes 

Until a crossbow bolt from Daryl felled her

At the end there are still Zombies in the area, but presumably they fled with the dawn?

The Survivors

Great fun,  and we all commented on how the cooperative nature of the game and the sense of story helped. 

Poor Grim struggled to roll much higher than a 9 for a lot of the game. The Blue Lady zombie was truly deadly, and the Bake House (including a clue) collapsed early on in the game (hmm, must make some ruins).

I'm getting better with the rules, and was corrected over a couple of mistakes I'd been making. 

It was nice to get the stuff that I've been painting for the Paint What You Got challenge on the table too.

It looks like we'll be playing again soon.  Time to see if we can rescue any more villagers. 

Painting Reaper Bones Tomb Rats 07031 and Townsfolk

I don't really need any new rats. I have a good number of the old Bones rats painted and based, more than enough for the first mission,  but the newer Tomb Rats are much more impressive, and given that we've lost Companions to them both times we've played*, they just look the part. 

I've got villagers as well (painted as one of my 'Palette Cleansers' back in 2021) but I'd like more of the Townsfolk painted up to match the old chap from last December. 

Slapchop seems an ideal way of getting these minis done quickly.

Tomb Rats

Painting the rats was straightforward.  As with the Zombies,  I gave them a wash of Army Painter Darktone thinned with Vallejo Thinner,  then a drybrush of white. 

I used mostly Army Painter Speedpaints as there wasn't much complicated in the colour scheme,  though I did use Vallejo Xpress Color Fairy Skin for the tail and noses, as its a bit pinker. 

Fur was a mix of Army Painter Speedpaint Sand Golem and Hardened Leather to give some variety,  and a line of APS Dark Wood along the spine.  Reactivation helps blend this in.

I also painted an albino rat, but it needs some work to base properly, so I'll not include it here.

All the rats were given VGC Off White teeth and black eyes.

Four Tomb Rats

I said the painting was straightforward; the preparation wasn't.  I'm sure my readers know that I prefer my roleplaying and skirmish minis on clear bases.  With the exception of my Lord of the Rings collection,  and more recently, my Oldhammer stuff, I've been clear basing since 2016. Some minis are easier than others, but these rats were a real pain to remove from the integral bases. 

Townsfolk

The Townsfolk were also pretty easy, though again, removing the bases, especially for both the women in their base hugging skirts took some effort with a Stanley knife.

Colour choice was the only thing I struggled with. 

Three more townsfolk

Stylistically, these Townsfolk look a bit later than the zombies or the old chap. Indeed, they'd not look out of place in the sixteen hundreds.

I deliberately tried to match the colours of the lady zombie in the green dress for the younger of the two women. It's not exact, but hopefully it links them.

Young woman and zombie 'twin'

Otherwise, I mostly used various combinations of Speedpaints, though once again the VXP Fairy Skin was used on the younger woman.

So that's everything I mentioned in my planning post painted. Enough minis for the first mission, and my entry for Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge. 

But I've been working on some scenery and if I can get that finished in time, I'll add it to my entry. 

#EDIT# 

Further to Bodvoc's comment below,  the newer Reaper Bones minis are made of a much harder material. The original Bonseum was softer and more flexible.  Bonseum Black (actually a mid grey) is much tougher. It's harder to cut, and doesn't bend as easily,  great for detail and reducing 'floppy weapon syndrome'.

It does make it a beast to remove large amounts though, and like the original (and Restic) leaves a very rough surface if sanded or filed. 

Puddle bases are much easier to remove,  if nothing else,  they can be sanded down. 

*Something that shouldn't have happened.  I missed the bit that said that monsters don't score Critical Hits.  So it's not possible for a Giant Rat to take out a Man at Arms in one bite.  It looked good on the table top though