Star Saga Bosses

I've finished all the Star Saga minis, just the furniture and doors to complete.
So far I've shown two of the bosses, but I thought I'd do a post with all five of them.

First, a group photo of all five bosses.

Guard Commander Graves, Data Storage Unit X-02-A, Dr Lucas Koyner, Plague Aberration and Monarch

Monarch the Enforcer

Monarch is a lovely model and one I really enjoyed painting. Over a black undercoat I did a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Game Colour Sombre Grey, then a highlight lightening the grey with Wolf Grey. The final highlight was applied to the edges of the armour plates. Selected plates were then washed with blue wash, though the effect doesn't show very well on the photos. I could easily go back to this model to bring out more details, but it will do for now.

Dr. Koyner

Koyner was essentially painted like the Lab Technicians, since I didn't cover the process when I posted them here, this is the process. Over a white under coat, the Lab suit was painted VGC Wolf Grey. White (VGC Dead White) was used to give heavy highlights then a wash of VGC Pale Grey Wash. The yellow patches were VGC Heavy Gold Brown highlighted with VGC Gold Yellow. Rather like the Chovar here, I struggled to know how to paint the various cables and stuff for his extra cybernetic arms. The end result of various greys and metals doesn't look great, but again, it'll do.

And finally the Plague Aberration

This model was originally made for Deadzone, and I've faced T'OtherOne's Abomination on more than one occasion. Nasty. 

In Star Saga it's presence is tied nicely into the story. I believe the model was added as a stretch goal, with a mission written to include it.

I painted it so it was obviously connected to the Plague Victims here. The bony growths were done essentially the same, but the flesh was given a base coat of VGC Heavy Grey (which has quite a greenish shade to it) followed by a drybrush of a mix of the basecoat and VGC Rotting Flesh, then pure Rotting Flesh, then a final highlight mixing in some VGC Livery Green.

The whole model was given a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone. Extreme highlights were retouched once the wash was dry.

I then added patches of Strong Tone wash and Red wash to give a more bruised flesh look, though not as heavily as I might have done.

I'm pleased with the end result, but I suspect it will look quite different to my Plague Deadzone faction.

That's a set of minis I'm pleased with. I enjoyed painting some of them much more than others, but now I can play the Eiras Contract with fully painted minis. Well, I've still to finish the furniture and the doors, and there are the laser guns and shield generators still to do. The shields are fiddly and easily lost, so I may well base them somehow.

Of course, I haven't started any of the extra Mercenaries. Or anything from the supplements...

More Star Saga Minions

Here are the last of the Star Saga Minions.

Corporation Rangers

I used effectively the same scheme and technique as the Marines, but I added some camouflage to the fabric of the trousers and the hard armour. I'm not convinced it's worked that well, but it does differentiate them from the ordinary Marines.

For the fuel tank on the back of one of them I applied a glaze over the base colours which, I think, gives a nice effect, though it doesn't show up very well on the photo.

Plague Victims

My Deadzone minis are currently unavailable, so I painted these up without reference to the Plague faction I painted a while ago (I since remembered I had pictures here on the blog, d'oh). The flesh was a base coat of Vallejo Game Colour Rotting Flesh with highlights made by mixing VGC Livery Green to Rotting Flesh. I felt it lacked depth so gave it a wash of very watered down VGC Heavy Khaki, then reset the highlights. The bony plates were VGC Khaki (the ordinary khaki this time), highlighted with VGC Bonewhite then Off White. The trousers were a simple base colour and highlight with a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. The whole mini was then washed with Army Painter Soft Tone

I'm very happy with the results, but they don't really match my Stage 3s. It doesn't really matter of course.

One of each pose has orange trousers (prisoners from Perestia?) While the others have green. The crouching victim has some sort of display pad on his belt. It's just like the one that one of the Lab Technicians has. I was initially tempted to paint this model as an infected technician, but in the end I went with matching the other model, but there is a flat line output on the display.

I've realised that I haven't actually shown the Corporation Marines before, so here they are.

They were painted with a black undercoat, then the hard 'shell' armour was drybrushed with Vallejo Game Colour Charcoal, then lighter drybrushes adding VGC Sombre Grey. The webbing and pouches were given a black wash.

The fabric was basecoated VGC Gory Red and highlighted Bloody Red.

Star Saga Chovar

I'm still working my way through the Star Saga minis, and here's the Chovar.
It's a nice mini, if a little 'flat'. I wish now that I'd used the hot water method to repose some of the tentacles, but I'll not risk the the paint doing it at this late stage. Perhaps if I were to paint another?

I'm happy with how the mini turned out, but at the time I found it a bit of a chore to paint. I think this was because I had no mental picture of how I wanted it to look, and the various cables or tubes and other 'stuff' that keep the poor thing imprisoned baffled me.

I can use the Chovar as a Deadzone mini as well. Multiple use, which is good.

I'm now close to finishing painting Star Saga. I've some of the furniture still to do, and all the doors. Once I've finished basing the rest of the minis, I'll get a post up about them.

Star Saga Terminals

I've been steadily plodding through the Star Saga stuff and have just about finished the minis. I've nearly finished the Rangers, they are just waiting for their clear bases, and the Plague Victims are well on the way. In fact only the Plague Abomination still has no paint on it yet. But none of these are ready to show yet, so here's something else from Star Saga.

I moved the terminals ahead in the painting queue as in one of the missions they have specific letters to identify them and I thought it would be easiest to include the letters on the actual terminals.

 

There's not a lot to say about these. The off white was a base coat of Vallejo Wolf Grey with white highlights. The whole lot was given a wash with Vallejo Grey Wash. The screens were painted a mix of dark green and black (I tried both green and black and neither looked quite right). The displays were simply semi-random markings using Vallejo Glacier Blue, making sure a different letter was obvious one each screen. 

They were rather fun to paint, possibly as they were quite different from the 15mm Ogres and the Mordor minis I have been painting recently (another advantage of the five box system, I'm giving myself permission to change projects without feeling I'm abandoning something).

Star Saga Minis

I got Star Saga just over two years ago (here's my review of the boxed set).  Since then I've played it a bit, and kept promising myself I'd  get round to painting the minis.
With the Monday night group now nominally for board games and similar we've been playing quite a bit of Star Saga recently.  Its a great fun game.
When we took a short break for various reasons I took advantage of the chance to finally slap some paint on some of the minis.

Dulinsky, Wrath and Alyse

Curby, 'the Devil' and Ogan (Curby is waiting for some clear acrylic rod for his base)

Two of the Lab Technicians

Guard Commander Graves and some of his Security Guards

The GCPS Marines are done but are waiting for basing.  I've still got the Rangers to finish, and the Plague Victims and Aberration to start.  After that there's the furniture and the doors.
Once I've done these I suppose I should get the expansions done too.  Maybe I'll see if the group wants to go on with them first.

The minis were fun to paint.  The detail is pretty good; not as great as on the resin versions (which seem to be the ones used for pictures in the rules books), but quite good enough for playing the game.  I used a variant of my 'base coat, extreme highlight and all-over wash' that I use for 15mm.  I chose washes for individual areas rather than just one colour for everything (usually a mix of soft and strong tone from Army Painter).  I think they look OK.  I based the colour schemes on the ones in the rulebook, with a few simplifications in places.

Of course, I've not just painted the minis for the game, I've incidentally got a good amount of the minis needed for at least two of the new factions in Deadzone Escalation; Mazon Labs and Mercenaries.  I may well try one or both of these soon.  I have in my collection many of the other options for these factions, and the Star Saga expansions add further potential Deadzone minis (more Rebs and a specialist Vermyn list).  I do like it when a mini has more than one use.

Chillcon Haul

Yesterday it was Chillcon, one of my favourite wargames shows.  I'll admit I don't cope well with crowds, so the bigger shows, like Vapnartak, are not for me.

Anyway, what was the show like, and what did I get to add to my MABLE*?

The show was great, it was clearly busy, but not too crowded as the space available was ample.
I went with a list, both for myself and for Merlin.  Alas, I couldn't find anything from his list, and my list was only partially filled.

Thud and Blunder, since Merlin got this I was determined to track it down.  It uses essentially the same engine as In her Majesty's Name and Blood Eagle, but is far more geared to a traditional fantasy game (there are pages of spells for instance, and there are sample characters to make up an adventuring party).  I hope this will give me the opportunity to play games with pretty much any fantasy minis I have.  I certainly have no real complaints with the Blood Eagle games I played a while ago, though I suspect on a much larger scale the granularity of the game might slow it down somewhat.

I theory, I shouldn't need to paint anything up for this as I have stuff for Vanguard, plus loads of D&D minis of various sorts.  I'm sure I will do a dedicated warband though.

Dwarven MDF cut terrain from Lasercut Architect. I've seen these two dwarven buildings on the internet before, in real life they were good enough for me to buy.  There is a third, slightly larger, building and a bridge in the same style.  If cottage 1 (on the left) looks slightly familiar, it is based loosely on a card model of a dwarven brewery that was available in a scenario pack many years ago.  I liked the original and always planned to build one of my own.  Now I don't have to.  The designer was interested to hear that there could be a market for similar buildings in 15mm.  

I have a terrain project planned for the near future, so these will come in useful.

Oathsworn under their 'Sensible Shoes' label.  I've not noticed these before, but they are nice minis for RPG characters (and a few monsters).  My new D&D campaign features Dragonborn as an important PC/NPC race, so I was pleased to add to my currently small collection.  

Tieflings this time.  My son likes these, so I picked up what we could find.

I needed some good sized tufts to finish of some bases (then I can show the handgunners).  I can pick up Army painter stuff quite easily in my FLGS, but these were a little more out of the ordinary.

Mantic were selling packs of the Star Saga scenery at a very reasonable price, so I got a pack to use as extra stuff for Deadzone.  I understand that interactive scenery will be a thing in DZ soon.

There were many impressive display games; Mantic's Vanguard was particularly appealing, but for sheer nostalgia this was awesome. 

This is Dark Ops' 3D Heroquest board.  I'm sure this boardgame (released in the 1980s, don't you feel old now?) is responsible for more people joining the hobby than pretty much anything else.

What didn't I get?  Well I wanted some bases from Warbases, but I didn't think to order them in advance.  I'll put in a postal order.  I was also after a few odd minis; a plastic GW archer to complete my kingdoms of Men archer regiment, and some old school minis for another mini project i have coming up.  

It didn't matter though, I'm more than happy with what I got, and when it comes down to adding to the lead pile, there are only two new minis for me (plus a bit of terrain admittedly).

*Miniatures Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy

Star Saga Mission B

I finally got round to playing Star Saga last night.  We had a couple of the Monday night D&D group absent, so three of us decided to give it a go.
Mission B - The Main Team in the missions book is for 3 Mercenaries, and the rules contain an A.I. system, so that seemed to be our best bet.

As you can see, despite receiving this some time ago, I haven't painted anything yet, partly as I always have a huge pile of 'urgent' things to paint, and partly as I wanted to see if the game was any good.

If you don't know Star Saga, it's Mantic's SF board game set in their Warpath universe.  The mechanics are similar to their fantasy game Dungeon Saga, and like that game and Dwarf King's Hold, it had a forerunner in Project Pandora.

Players control Mercenaries exploring a lab complex and fighting the various lab technicians, security guards and marines.  The whole series of missions tell a story, one of corporate greed and corruption, and black budget experimentation.

Some of the characters have been introduced in earlier Mantic products, such as Blaine and Wrath, the only violent Judwaan.  Others will make interesting additions to the Warpath universe, and I will paint up some of the Mercenaries as additions to my Rebs force.

So was it any good?  Well yes, we really enjoyed it!  The game ran smoothly, and the rules were pretty easy to follow (although I misread the hit points of the lab technicians, so they were an easier kill).  Mantic's decision to include training missions (as the did in Dungeon Saga) and an A.I. make it very easy to access the game.  Using the A.I. is pretty intuitive, much better than the one in Dungeon Saga, which I found overly picky and seemed a bit 'tacked on', though the game is easier for the Mercenaries than it would be with a human (or other sentient species) as Nexus player.

Components wise the game is well done.  The minis are some of Mantic's best one piece plastics, in my opinion.  One of the scenery pieces (the table with benches) is a beast to try and straighten out though.  Several goes with the hot water treatment didn't help much.  The rest of the pieces are pretty good.

I'm sure we will be playing again.  It won't replace D&D or other role playing, but it it s good game to have in the stable for the right situation, and it would be fun to play through the campaign.

Star Saga

I got my copy of Star Saga the other day.  Actually it was last week, but its been a hectic weekend of Concerts (and migraines).
This puts my totals for December back some way, so what is in the box and is it worth it?

The box is just 11" square and 4" deep, designed to look like some sort of containment vessel.

A lot packed away inside.  I haven't checked, but I think there is some sort of dimensional warp here allowing Mantic to fit in more minis.

I haven't tried the game yet, but the system is like Dungeon Saga, which I liked.  There is an artificial intelligence option, either allowing up to four players to play against it, or one person to have a go on his or her own.  A great way to learn the rules.

But its the minis that I suspect a lot of you are interested in.  These are all photographed straight from the box (with insufficient overhead light to show the details).

The four main heroes, Wrath, Francesco 'The Devil' Selvaggio, 'Curby' and Captain Erika Dulinsky.  Wrath is an established Deadzone character, being the only Judwan to turn to violence, a result of tampering by the Corporations.  Selvaggio appeared in a Deadzone short story.

Extra heroes Alyse and Ogan Helkkare, flanked by two of ogan's Sentry Guns.

Four of the 'bosses', organic Data Storage Unit X-02-A (a Chovar), Enforcer ES435 'Monarch', Guard Commander Graves and Dr. Lukas Koyner.

Lab Technicians, the lest powerful of the minions.

Security Guards

Plague Victims (I wonder what Dr. Koyner has been experimenting on?) 

Corporation Marines

Two Corporation Rangers (elite marines) flanking another Marine.

Extra Mercs, a Koris, the Rebs Sphyr leader Kira Nikolovski, and The Fear, one of the Nameless.  

Blaine (of course), Hacker Halftail and a new sculpt of the Survivor (another established Deadzone character)

Finally, The Abomination, straight from Deadzone, and a pleasure to own.

There is some scenery as well. cabinets and storage tanks

Desks and tables

A small cabinet and some computer terminals.  in the game the terminals are used to unlock doors or find out additional information

Crates, which can be searched for extra items

Doors.  

The quality of the pieces is good.  Dungeon Saga seemed OK, but The Walking Dead was much better in terms of sculpts and casting.  Star Saga is, to my mind, even better.

There are also a slew of tokens and floor plans, special dice (reminiscent of the old heroquest dice), data cards for teh heroes and the opposition, as well as events and items and a Rule book and a Mission book.  More missions will be published, and several were unlocked during the kickstarter.

The Kickstarter edition contains some extras; bonus minions and the Extra mercs.  Even so, the base game is a good set.

Apart from playing the game itself, there is lots of opportunity to use the minis in games of Deadzone.  I'll certainly be using Nikolovski in my Rebs trike team and the technicians would make ideal targets to be captured, rescued, or even infected.

One very nice thing about the game is how mantic use it to expand their Warpath universe.  Including Some known characters makes the place come alive, but the addition of new races and details about worlds and different Corporations help it to grow.  I wonder how many different races now inhabit the Warpath Universe?