Mantic's latest kickstarter, a board game based on The Walking Dead graphic novels, launches today.
It's looking like a good board game, with the possibility of add-on packs for extra factions.
Players control groups of survivors, with the Walkers being a hazard to everyone (there are ways to manipulate their behavior to sic 'em on your opponent).
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Saturday, 30 January 2016
January is Orcs Month
I haven't posted for a while, but I have been busy. I have been putting together a warband for Dragon Rampant, using some old 15mm orcs I had lying around, plus some new figures I got to bulk out the force.
As I mentioned previously, i was concerned that I could no longer see well enough to paint the detail on 15mm figures. In fact I got rid of most of my 15mm collection a while back, and the orcs were just some I missed. I did keep a 15mm Empire army, from back in the day when I played Warhammer Fantasy Battle in that scale, but I have other plans for those.
I was aiming to finish the force by the end of january, but I still have one unit to do. I may keep that for a step by step guide if its of any use to people. Everything still needs properly basing and texturing. Never-the-less, I am please with my progress, and I might try for this 'one project a month' approach this year and see how well I do.
Still not great with the photos, but here are a couple of the units.
As I mentioned previously, i was concerned that I could no longer see well enough to paint the detail on 15mm figures. In fact I got rid of most of my 15mm collection a while back, and the orcs were just some I missed. I did keep a 15mm Empire army, from back in the day when I played Warhammer Fantasy Battle in that scale, but I have other plans for those.
I was aiming to finish the force by the end of january, but I still have one unit to do. I may keep that for a step by step guide if its of any use to people. Everything still needs properly basing and texturing. Never-the-less, I am please with my progress, and I might try for this 'one project a month' approach this year and see how well I do.
Still not great with the photos, but here are a couple of the units.
Heavy Riders, six Magister Millitum orcs on boars
The same unit, shields still to have some sort of design on them.
Foot (light or heavy) from a mix of manufacturers.
The rest of the foot unit.
I have two units of scouts and another unit of foot ready. The bulk of the force is a mixture of different manufacturers, including; Essex, Ral Partha, Chariot, Magister Millitum and Grenadier. I like the mix, and I have chosen a variety of skin tones to emphasise this, from the traditional GW green to paler shades and browns and greys.
The bases are from Warbases and are ideal for my 15mm Dragon Rampant stuff as I base infantry on 15mm diameter MDF bases. They make movement easier, and fit with the idea that the unit is a mob of orcs rather than a well regimented block of troops (though I will probably use similar for my next 15mm DR force; medieval humans). I hope to have some cavalry bases custom made soon.
I am allowing myself a few extra days in February since I didn't start this project until part way into January.
Next month, probably terrain.
Thursday, 7 January 2016
A Little Experiment
One of the things I am trying to do this year is thin out my figure collection. A quick rummage through various boxes turned up some old 15mm fantasy I had from years back, some of which I had painted.
Now I gave up on 15mm a while ago as I found it difficult to paint the detail as my eyesight succumbed to middle age. However, I had a good half of a Dragon Rampant warband with the painted orcs, so I wondered, if I use a magnifying visor, could I paint enough of the remaining orcs to make it worth while?
I picked out three unpainted Kalistra Mountain Orcs (not strictly 15mm, but I want the orcs to look varied, so that works for me.
The visor certainly helped me see the detail, but I found my brush hand was not as steady as it used to be.
After the base coat was on I felt very discouraged, the paint job was scrappy, with lots of the wrong colours where they shouldn't be, but I persevered and gave them a wash of black over the armour, then a sepia wash over everything. A quick bit of drybrushing and some highlights kind of saved them, so here they are.
Now I gave up on 15mm a while ago as I found it difficult to paint the detail as my eyesight succumbed to middle age. However, I had a good half of a Dragon Rampant warband with the painted orcs, so I wondered, if I use a magnifying visor, could I paint enough of the remaining orcs to make it worth while?
I picked out three unpainted Kalistra Mountain Orcs (not strictly 15mm, but I want the orcs to look varied, so that works for me.
The visor certainly helped me see the detail, but I found my brush hand was not as steady as it used to be.
After the base coat was on I felt very discouraged, the paint job was scrappy, with lots of the wrong colours where they shouldn't be, but I persevered and gave them a wash of black over the armour, then a sepia wash over everything. A quick bit of drybrushing and some highlights kind of saved them, so here they are.
For comparison, here are three of the orcs I painted years ago, these are some of the rather nice Grenadier 15mm fantasy range, now made by Mirliton.
Whilst not fantastic, I can live with them, so time to look out the rest of my old 15mm, and, maybe, see what is available these days.
They will probably get put on individual 15mm round MDF bases,and I believe that Warbases does movement trays designed for just such a thing.
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
Brainzzz
Mantic have just announced that their new long awaited IP game is The Walking Dead All Out War
Based on the Graphic novel more than the T.V,. show, it promises lots of zombie action.
I missed the playtest day for this, but more information as and when I know it.
Based on the Graphic novel more than the T.V,. show, it promises lots of zombie action.
I missed the playtest day for this, but more information as and when I know it.
Sunday, 3 January 2016
Oh No, Not Another Kickstarter
I have just found this Kickstarter for 3D printable scenary. I like the look of the buildings, and it seems to have a reasonable amount of versatility. Looking at the images on the website I have already started re arranging the various modules to create new buildings.
If only they did ruined versions, this would be ideal for Frostgrave.
Then again, if only I had a 3D printer :/
If only they did ruined versions, this would be ideal for Frostgrave.
Then again, if only I had a 3D printer :/
Friday, 1 January 2016
That Was The Year That...
As promised, a quick look back at the past year, both in terms of what I got round to doing and what was happening in the gaming world as it impacted on me.
I started this blog last January and my first project was a board for playing Barsoom games on.
The board is more or less complete, although I want to put some more patches of yellow Martian moss on it. I have a few rocky outcrops shaped and waiting to paint, and several 18mm Martians to paint.
The main reason for not finishing this is that I rarely get to try out experimental games. My regular opponent for this kind of thing lives some distance away, and we only manage a handful of games a year, so in hindsight it could be said that the project was doomed form the start.
Fear not. I shall return to it sometime this year, and I learnt quite a bit about terrain building.
Next up was some D&D 2.5D terrain. I really like this stuff, although it doesn't have quite the dramatic effect of full 3D terrain, it is a lot more portable, and some of the Heroic Maps stuff is very nicely detailed indeed. in fact I have recently purchased some more stuff which will see use fairly soon in the long running D&D campaign.
As with the Barsoom project I improved my skills, and will be building more 2.5D stuff soon.
In march Bones 2 arrived. Once I had finished oo ing and ah ing over the lovely plastic goodness I got round to painting a few of the minis; not much though, and I have a huge pile of Bone still to do.
April brought the start of my attempts to build a goblin army for Kings of War. I have two units completed and a third just waiting to be based, but as with many of my projects, other new shiny things took over. It's still an ongoing project though, and I am going to try and get it finished (if an army is ever finished) by this time next year. I might even set myself a target of one unit per month, though that might get tight if other things come along.
Alongside painting goblins I got a lot (and I mean a lot) of Fat Dragon 3D terrain build for a long running dungeon crawl (its still ongoing, though they are close to the end). the results can be seen on here, though more up to date photos including other areas of the Library, can be seen on the Fat Dragon forum here. (It was nice to get such positive feedback from my peers in the hobby as well).
To go with the new version of Kings of War (and to show ex WFB players how easy it is to switch) I dragged out my old WFB Empire army and re jigged it as a Kingdoms of Men army for KoW. I ended up doing quite a bit of repainting, and there is still more to do. Even so I managed to put together a nicely functioning 1000 pt army that met with some modest success on the table top.
I then got Frostgrave and began putting together a warband for it. Rather than starting straight away on the figures that came with it I decided to use some of my old D&D prepaints. Sadly this didn't save me any time as I then repainted them. At least they look good.
I also made some terrain for Frostgrave; some fold flat ruined buildings form Fat Dragon and Dave Graffam, and a statue of a wizard, in fact I have two more statues just waiting to be based.
After Frostgrave came Strange Aeons, a Mythos based skirmish game. I haven't done much with this so far, partly due to lack of enthusiastic opponents, partly due to having loads of other stuff to do.
the tentacled gribbly has made several appearances in D&D though.
And then Dungeon Saga arrived. I have been waiting for this and was not disappointed. There are a few issues, especially with the Adventurers Companion, but they are being corrected.
The detail on the figures is really good. Although marketed as 'board game quality', they are the equal of many table top miniatures. The rules are good, simple enough to pick up quickly, but with enough detail to model dungeon exploring.
The end of 2015 brought Dragon Rampant. This fantasy version of Lion Rampant looks interesting, and I hope to be playing it soon.
In the world of gaming last year saw GW finally waving good bye to the Warhammer world, and I suspect, quite a few die hard warhammer fans. Mantic tried to pick up the slack with their new edition of Kings Of War. Mantic also brought us Dungeon Saga, which could be thought of as the spiritual successor to HeroQuest.
They also promised us a new version of Deadzone (the redux beta test is currently ongoing, thought the rules themselves should be locked in by now) and Warpath, which we are expecting some time this year.
I started this blog last January and my first project was a board for playing Barsoom games on.
The board is more or less complete, although I want to put some more patches of yellow Martian moss on it. I have a few rocky outcrops shaped and waiting to paint, and several 18mm Martians to paint.
The main reason for not finishing this is that I rarely get to try out experimental games. My regular opponent for this kind of thing lives some distance away, and we only manage a handful of games a year, so in hindsight it could be said that the project was doomed form the start.
Fear not. I shall return to it sometime this year, and I learnt quite a bit about terrain building.
Next up was some D&D 2.5D terrain. I really like this stuff, although it doesn't have quite the dramatic effect of full 3D terrain, it is a lot more portable, and some of the Heroic Maps stuff is very nicely detailed indeed. in fact I have recently purchased some more stuff which will see use fairly soon in the long running D&D campaign.
As with the Barsoom project I improved my skills, and will be building more 2.5D stuff soon.
In march Bones 2 arrived. Once I had finished oo ing and ah ing over the lovely plastic goodness I got round to painting a few of the minis; not much though, and I have a huge pile of Bone still to do.
April brought the start of my attempts to build a goblin army for Kings of War. I have two units completed and a third just waiting to be based, but as with many of my projects, other new shiny things took over. It's still an ongoing project though, and I am going to try and get it finished (if an army is ever finished) by this time next year. I might even set myself a target of one unit per month, though that might get tight if other things come along.
Alongside painting goblins I got a lot (and I mean a lot) of Fat Dragon 3D terrain build for a long running dungeon crawl (its still ongoing, though they are close to the end). the results can be seen on here, though more up to date photos including other areas of the Library, can be seen on the Fat Dragon forum here. (It was nice to get such positive feedback from my peers in the hobby as well).
To go with the new version of Kings of War (and to show ex WFB players how easy it is to switch) I dragged out my old WFB Empire army and re jigged it as a Kingdoms of Men army for KoW. I ended up doing quite a bit of repainting, and there is still more to do. Even so I managed to put together a nicely functioning 1000 pt army that met with some modest success on the table top.
I then got Frostgrave and began putting together a warband for it. Rather than starting straight away on the figures that came with it I decided to use some of my old D&D prepaints. Sadly this didn't save me any time as I then repainted them. At least they look good.
I also made some terrain for Frostgrave; some fold flat ruined buildings form Fat Dragon and Dave Graffam, and a statue of a wizard, in fact I have two more statues just waiting to be based.
After Frostgrave came Strange Aeons, a Mythos based skirmish game. I haven't done much with this so far, partly due to lack of enthusiastic opponents, partly due to having loads of other stuff to do.
the tentacled gribbly has made several appearances in D&D though.
And then Dungeon Saga arrived. I have been waiting for this and was not disappointed. There are a few issues, especially with the Adventurers Companion, but they are being corrected.
The detail on the figures is really good. Although marketed as 'board game quality', they are the equal of many table top miniatures. The rules are good, simple enough to pick up quickly, but with enough detail to model dungeon exploring.
The end of 2015 brought Dragon Rampant. This fantasy version of Lion Rampant looks interesting, and I hope to be playing it soon.
In the world of gaming last year saw GW finally waving good bye to the Warhammer world, and I suspect, quite a few die hard warhammer fans. Mantic tried to pick up the slack with their new edition of Kings Of War. Mantic also brought us Dungeon Saga, which could be thought of as the spiritual successor to HeroQuest.
They also promised us a new version of Deadzone (the redux beta test is currently ongoing, thought the rules themselves should be locked in by now) and Warpath, which we are expecting some time this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)