Boarding Actions

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Warhammer 40K – The Badab War books have rules for boarding actions for game of 40K. The rules themselves can be used on a standard table or on a smaller enclosed area of the ship. To do the later the book recommends using Space Hulk tiles. Given that I missed the release for that game (and don't want to pay that much for a 2-player only game) I need to come up with a different solution.

Years ago there was an article on the Games Workshop site that detailed how to create a 3D space hulk using plastic gutter material. I did a few sections using their article as a basis, but was really unhappy with the playability of the end result.

Another possible solution I found was Hirst Arts. They have molds and plans to create a 3D Space Hulk board. Overall I think this is a simple and elegant solution, the finished product looks great. However the molds are costly (well worth the price) and it is very time consuming to create. The other issue is storage, the finished product is somewhat delicate and requires a significant amount of space to safely store.

As I pondered other solutions I remembered the sewer board I created for Malifaux. The board was relatively simple to create, and the walls could be moved around to create any type of maze necessary. 

From there is was a matter of deciding on how to create the base board and texture. My game table is set to handle a 4x6 board for 40K or two 3x3 boards for Malifaux. I settled on creating two 2x4 sections of decking. In the past I've used "granny grate" a plastic grid used for needle point or something, however it is difficult to glue down and has a tendency to pop up after use. This time around I used a drywall tape that looks like decking combined with sections of cardstock cut to abstract shapes. Rivets were created using a hole punch and individually glued to the tiles.

The walls will be created using 2" and 3" thick insulation foam. I'll have a variety of lengths that can sit on top of the decking to create a maze. The nice thing about this design is: It's easily storable, can create a variety of battlefields, and it's easy to create.

 

Burning down the house

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Malifaux – The Rising Powers book introduced a new type of token used to represent a growing fire in some of the interior locations. The nice thing about the size of the token is it matches up with the size Crid's flame wall spell. Over the course of the game you could potentially need 10-12 of these counters, rather than use generic blank bases I've been working on creating some 3D tokens that will better represent the event.

For the event I'm running Feb 5th, one of the tables will be the Star Theater and will use the growing fire special event. With the event drawing close I needed to come up with a way to quickly create multiple flame counters.

To begin I first sculpted the flames on a 50mm base. I used green foam to bulk out the shape. From there I than sculpted the flames using a 2 part epoxy (I've found the construction grade stuff you can buy at a hardware store works great for terrain). To sculpt the flames I rolled the epoxy into small sausage shapes. By layering the sausage shapes you can create a texture that looks flame-like. Once that base dries use green stuff to add additional detail.

The next step is to create a mold of the sculpt. To do this I use a 2-part silicon and create a simple mold. I mount the base into a plastic cup and pour the silicon into the mold. Once it's cured pop of the master and cast using dental plaster.

Painting is pretty quick. I like to spray the yellow base and than do the blends of orange and red. To tie them together I do a final wash of yellow ink.

Following these steps you can make multiple flame tokens or if you want to save even more time check out the online store.

Product Review – Castle Ravenloft Board Game

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I was recently able to try Castle Ravenloft. My first thoughts looking at the box was oh look Wizards made their own Hero Quest Game. I don't play D&D but the guys I tested this with do, and they informed me it's a really simplified version of the 4th edition rules. 

The components are very nice, in the box you get a ton of plastic miniatures, heavy card stock: dungeon tiles, character cards, tokens, and markers. The box also includes a rules manual, and adventure guide. There are also several decks of cards. My only issue with the components is the fact that the "organizer" forces you to pile everything together and there's not separators for the card decks. I've seen several good solutions on boardgamegeek.com, but it would be nice if the box came with a better way to organize all the parts. As it stands you either spend a significant amount of time sorting prior to play or interrupt the game to dig for the needed piece, marker or token.

Game play is really easy and intuitive. Each player has a card that lists the order of play. The phases consist of Hero Phase: fight, move etc; Exploration Phase: place new tile, encounter etc; Villian Phase: monters, traps etc drawn by the active player move, fight etc.

Aside from what is dictated by the adventure guide, everything that happens in the game is determined by on of several decks of cards. This means that no adventure will ever be exactly the same. The dungeon is also drawn randomly from a stack of tiles so it will also rarely be exactly the same.

Combat is simply a matter of rolling a D20, adding the total to your modifier and comparing it to the AC of whatever your attacking. You then apply the damage and if the damage exceeds the wounds you destroy the monster and draw a treasure.

This is a really fun game and I can see it popping out as a filler between larger games or playing several adventures over the course of an evening. The components are very nice and of a good quality and I imagine that expansions will be made in the future. Although because of the random generation of events it will probably take a while to grow bored with what you get in the box.

It does ... WHAT!

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During the course of playing any miniature war-game (or most any type of game) you'll come across a model, card etc. that "breaks" the game. This doesn't necessarily mean the piece in question is overpowered or unbeatable; rather it changes the nature of the game.

What this leads me to is my least favorite faction to play against in Malifaux. The Neverborn are the bane of my existence. The general consensus amongst players I've spoken with is that Neverborn are "unbeatable" or otherwise "unfun" to play against. While opinion cannot be legitimately classified as right or wrong, I do tend to severely dislike playing against them. I could be playing against my favorite opponent, but as soon as those purple cards hit the table I lose a bit of my enthusiasm. 

The question then comes up as to why this is. The models are relatively "balanced" and once you figure out how to deal with them their weaknesses become obvious (still working on this one...). I think what it boils down to is every one of the Neverborn masters somehow ignores or changes a core mechanic of the game. Which in turn means that when playing against them you have to change your thinking and read and re-read their abilities. That I think is where the "unfun" issue comes up. When I have to try to remember every weird interaction possible, and my opponent has to do the same thing, games tend to drag on and get bogged down with looking up rules and interactions.

In my opinion the Dreamer and Pandora are the worst offenders. Both significantly change the way the game is played and involve more "single-player" aspects than other masters. Pandora is annoying because her ability revolves around Wp tests, in order for her to work she removes the immunity that some models have to Wp duels (and pay for). The Dreamer just makes my head hurt, mostly because his crew involves much more thought in dealing with and playing then any other crew in the game.

Regardless of what Neverborn Master you face you will have to deal with the fact that some aspect of the game becomes irrelevant.

Lilith – Ignores Terrain, Creates New Terrain, and can swap any models on the board

Pandora – Removes immunity to Wp, causes wounds for tests that you may or may not usually have to take, jumps around the board.

Zoraida – Takes control of you models, can hurt you indirectly, can ignore terrain

The Dreamer – ignores initial deployment (for the most part), can pop models up where ever, can't be targeted (under specific circumstances) and a few other weird thing I'm forgetting at the moment

So are these models "broken," probably not. There's ways to deal with them and ultimately playing to your strategy or schemes and avoiding them can win you games. Are they "unfun," that depends on your perspective. For me I have a hard time getting my head around them and remembering all the odd interactions so they border somewhere between annoying and passing on a game (depending on my mood). That's not to say I haven't had really fun games playing against Neverborn players, but on the same level I've also had plenty of unenjoyable games against really great opponents that are only unenjoyable because of the crew I'm facing.

I hope this doesn't come off as whining or complaining. There's nothing wrong with any of the models described above. The issue for me is really just finding the way to deal with them while still having fun. 

My Favorite List

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Malifaux – I've been playing this list for a few months now and have found it to be very consistent and quite a b1t of fun to play. For competitive Malifaux the sweet spot seems to 35 Soul Stone games, this gives just enough time to get in at least 4-5 turns (for slow players, experienced players will get the full 6-7) in an hour and a half or so. There is also a trend to using the shared strategies and having them be predetermined by the event organizer. Thankfully, most events retain the ability to change your list each round which is far to important an aspect of the game to abandon.

The list I've been playing is as follows:

Seamus

2 – Rotten Belles

1 – Crooked Man

2 – Necropunks

Killjoy

(7) Stones in Pool

The Basics
Your game plan remains basically the same regardless of the strategy you pull. Deploy the Necropunks as far forward as possible, when they activate move twice and cast leap. Depending on the table set up this should put them about 21" from your board edge. If they can't lock a model into melee, they should be positioned as a juicy target. (Note: avoid anything that has a "sacrifice" ability, it prevents slow to die and ruins the plan) Ideally your opponent will have to spend a minimum of 2 AP to kill the Necropunk. With your Slow to Die action you summon Killjoy. Who should be right in the middle of your opponents crew. The odds are he will die, but in the process he should be able to kill one model and put a serious hurt on another. You should get a minimum of 2 turns forcing your opponent to deal with the rampaging beast in their backfield.

 

Every model in this list has Slow to Die, you should only summon Killjoy on your own turn if it is the end of turn 3 and your opponent hasn't killed anything yet.

The rest of the list is about board control. The Crooked Man should be moving toward objectives and casting Shafted as many times as he is able. The Belles should be used to screen Seamus and protect him from getting engaged in melee. Each turn the Belles should be moving and only casting Lure to set up a shot for Seamus or Distract to limit the AP of threats.

The Other Stuff
If I'm playing this list competitively I'll ALWAYS take Bodyguard and Hold-Out as my schemes. The reason being these are the easiest to accomplish and if things aren't going your way it's easy to run Seamus back towards his deployment zone to protect it. As long as you're able to prevent your opponent from getting their strategy or denying their schemes you'll at least tie.

Seamus is pretty terrible in melee and should avoid it at all costs. I've found that his (3) AP are best spent maneuvering around to protect himself and/or take a shot when he can. Most of the time taking a shot results in a corpse which you should then attempt to cast Arise My Sweet on. His other spells are tempting but situational at best. It's far more important to keep him safe so that .50 cal can do it's job.

As I said I've been playing this same list for a few months against a variety of opponents, and even when they know EXACTLY what you're going to do they will still react similarly to your plays. If they don't deal with the Necropunks they'll tie up a model and slowly grind it away until it becomes necessary to sacrifice and summon Killjoy. The Shafted Markers the Crooked Man can pump out will dictate where your opponent will move as the 2/54 chance of losing a model is a pretty scary proposition. 

 

RIW Tournament Update – Sharing the Love

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I just finished up designing the pins that will be awarded at the Feb 5th event I'm hosting as RIW Hobbies in Livonia. I think they're a fun play on the "I Love New York" logo. From my experience players enjoy having some type of take-away that says they won an event. So I try to create a unique pin for each event I run. 

The pins are created by printing this pdf onto inkjet shrinky-dink paper. Once the pins have been shrunk I attach pinbacks (you can get these at any arts and crafts store) and seal them with an acrylic spray.

Board Game Night

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Saturday we had some friends over to try out some of the new games we received for Christmas. To start out the night we played Sorry Sliders. This is a really fun dexterity game that is similar to shuffleboard. The neat thing about it is the variety of boards. Each center board has it's own rules and scoring system. Mt personal favorite is the red board, "Danger Dots," if your piece touches one of the exclamation points on the board it's removed from play. Scoring is done with a separate tracker which matches up with the slider. Just like in Sorry the goal is to get your pieces to "Home" by an exact count. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game an although it's set up for 4 players you could easily create teams for larger groups.

Next up on the list is a game called Smart Ass. This one has a very simple board that tracks a players success. After answering a question correctly the player roles a 12-sided die marked with 1, 2, 3, and 4 to see how far you move. Each turn one player reads clues and the rest of the players blurt of an answer, if you answer wrong you cannot answer again. The clues are fun and this makes a fun party game. My only complaint is the board is to short and it's fairly easy for one player to quickly run away with the game. Overall fun but not the best game design.

The third game we played is Urban Myth. I had high hopes for this game as I'm a huge fan of urban legends. The gameplay is a bit confusing. Each player has a card that says truth on one side, myth on the other. One player reads a clue and the rest the the players secretly flip their card to say truth or myth. Players that get it right advance one space around the board, the reader advance one space for each player that got it wrong. That part is simple, it gets weird when it comes to scoring. If a player is on a square that matches the category of the clue and they correctly answer the question they get the card. Each card has a letter on the back and you when the game by collecting cards to spell TRUE or MYTH. While the game is fun and lets people that are terrible at trivia have a 50/50 shot of getting it right the scoring is very random and doesn't have much strategy. Fun party game that could easily benefit from some house rules or a dice to select categories. 

We wrapped up the evening with Carcassonne: The Discovery. Allegedly this is a simplified version of Carcassonne geared to younger players. I wasn't a big fan of this game as the simplification takes a lot of the fun and strategy out of the game. Each player has 5 meeples one that is used one the score board and the others are used to denote Brigands, Explorers and Privateers. The scoring for the game is slightly confusing as its based on the geography of the board rather than cities like the original. I think the combination of playing it late in the night for the first time and the oversimplified rules led to us not enjoying this game as much. We'll give it another shot, but right now I think I prefer the original.

Snowed In

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I had to cancel my regular Malifaux night due to the 5 inches of snow that got dumped on Metro-Detroit yesterday. Luckily, my good friend Chuck (paperbag4) has a truck so he came over to play some 40k.

We played a 1500 point Capture & Control mission. He ran a mechanized Imperial Guard army, lots of tanks and veteran squad as troop choices. I used Space Marines, trying out a list that featured the Landraider Achilles, Master of the Forge on a bike, three Tactical Squads with Razorbacks and a total of 6 Lascannons.

The game was a draw on turn 7. I was really concerned about facing that many tanks, but after playing out the game it wasn't that bad of a match-up. The veteran squads were really difficult to deal with given the amount of special weapons they can safely shoot from the top of a Chimera.

After the game we tried out Cthulu Dice, which turns out to be a very fun version of LCR that allows you to target specific opponents. Played a dozen or so games in under an hour and enjoyed the randomness of the game.

Getting Organized

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Warhammer 40K – Following through with one of my resolutions, I've begun organizing my space marine army. I've found that when dealing with a large number of models like this it's best to organize what you have to develop a plan of action. I've assembled, primed and base coated most of my models. When working with GW stuff I tend to put a quick base coat on every model after they've been assembled. It's a habit I developed from playing in 40K events years ago. The old (maybe still in effect?) rule was a model had to have at least 3 colors on it to participate in an event. While this works fine to avoid having grey or black models on the tabletop it slows the process for finishing models. From a distance base coated models look ok and it's easy to slack off and never finish them (hence this huge cabinet of half finished models).

After sorting through the models I have built and re-reading numerous source books I'm only one squad of tactical marines short of having a full company. Of course in addition to the standard company I have numerous squads that would be part of other companies or support units. Rather than attempt to build an entire chapter I think I'm going to flesh out the captains of each company and reuse the basic components when I want. To keep this flexibility I'm not using the codex company color identifiers, this keeps this fluid and will also allow me to use multiple codexes depending on what I feel like fielding.

Reading through the Blood Angel codex I think this will be the basis for at least one of my companies. Using that book gives you numerous possibilities for varying your force and shoehorning in some of the traits that were left out of the current marine codex.

 

No Wonder It Cost So Much ...

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Warhammer 40K – While waiting to hear back from Forgeworld regarding the damaged parts of my order I started working on the items that weren't broken or missing vital parts. The shear size of the the excessive resin is pretty daunting to deal with. At first I though they included tank traps as part of the sprue. I'm not sure what the though process is in attaching a delicate piece to a giant block of resin, but it's not good. 

After a few hours of cutting and sanding I was able to assembly the bodies of both dreadnoughts and the landraider. I'm pretty happy with all the kits once they're assembled. Still waiting on the banner poll for the venerable dread, but overall they went together easily and had very little warping.

Start with a good foundation

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Warhammer 40K – I received a large box of GW Foundation paints for Christmas and thought it would be helpful to test them out. The claim is the paints will give one coat coverage over black, even with the reds and yellows. Upon opening the jar the first thing you'll notice is the paint appears to be very thick, so thick in fact that I thought it may be drying out. After a vigorous shaking the paint seemed to thin out a bit. I'd still recommend thinning it before use as with any paint. Using it right out of the pot is never a good idea.

WIP – Master of the Forge

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Warhammer 40K – I've been working on a conversion to have a Master of the Forge on a bike with a conversion beamer. I based the chassis on a tutorial I found on Bolter & Chainsword. I made a few modifications to the gun mount, namely using a wench section from the Vindicator kit as a weapon mount. The hole in the wench was also exactly the same size as a teleport homer pipe so it was easy to snap it into place. For the conversion beamer I'm using a Necron heavy guass cannon. Once the model is painted I'll put some yellow or blue neon rod in the weapon barrels.

The rider used the basic bike legs, torso from the vehicle sprue, Dark Angels techmarine head, apocarthy backpack, tentacle from a defiler and servo arm from a servitor. I had to remove the one of the sensors on the backpack to fit it on the bike. After carefully cutting off the offending piece I mounted the sensor to the cannon. For the servoarm I carefully bent the tentacle and heated it under a lamp to hold the curve. I then pinned it to the backpack and attached the servitor arm to the end of the tentacle with a pin. 

I'm looking forward to using this model as it will allow me to field up to 6 dreadnaughts, as well as being a cost effective mobile weapons platform.

Save the Date – Feb 5, 2011

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Since this is a Valetine's Day Themed event, there will be a special rule in effect for the entire day.

Each board will have a fixed strategy and special event/terrain.

At the beginning of each round the TO will flip a card from the top of a deck. If the card is a heart/ram or a joker than the following rule will be in effect for the duration of the round.

Love is in the Air

Models attacking a model of the opposite sex receive a negative twist on CB duels, models attacking a model of the same sex receive a positive twist on CB duels. Constructs are sexless and neither rule applies to them.

 

Customs ... how I loathe thee

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My loving mother was kind enough to buy me a bunch of Forgeworld stuff for Christmas. Much to her dismay what the package arrived it was in a blue plastic bag and the models were just dumped into the bag along with a destroyed box. As she ordered it just in time for Christmas she had no idea what to do. Not having any idea on what it was she actually bought she had no way of knowing what was missing or broken. 

Of course when I opened the box to find a Babab War book, Land Raider Achilles, 2 Dreadnaughts, Captain Korvydae, Damocles Command Rhino, and Raven Guard Doors for the Land Raider and Rhino I was thrilled. Then of course she explained how it arrived and upon closer inspection I noticed an immense amount of damage.

The book looked like it had been chewed up in some type of machine and several of the parts were missing for numerous models. Many of the parts were broken to the point of being unfixable.

I have attempted to contact Forgeworld regarding the damage and would hope that the package was insured since it was several hundred dollars worth of product. Since they just got back from the holiday break I hope to hear something soon (and hopefully positive). Be forewarned this is part of the danger of shipping or ordering things from overseas.

 

After a bit of a wait, the kind people at Forgeworld helped me out. They replaced all the missing or damaged parts with COMPLETE new models. Customer service like this really make a company stand out. 

Happy New Year

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With a new year comes a time to reflect on what we can do better than we did in the previous year. I thought I'd take a moment to share my resolutions as it pertains to gaming.

1. I resolve to actually finish a 40K project. As I've gained and lost interest in the Warhammer 40K system I've amassed quite the collection of models, bits and kits. In the coming year I plan to see at least one of these projects through to completion. I've decided that completing my marine army will become my top priority for my painting table between commissions and special projects.

2. I resolve to help the local Malifaux community to grow. While the game initially had a huge spike in interest it has since fallen off to a dedicated core group of people. I plan on doing some special projects to give away as tournament prizes to bring back the initial hype. Also the Metro League was a success so I will attempt to run at least two (maybe three) in the coming year. Hopefully the revised rules manual and V2 cards that were recently announced will clear up any of the issues that precluded people from throwing themselves into the game. I look forward to seeing the game grow and attract new players.

3. I resolve to improve the content of this site. I really want to bring in more interviews and tactics to the site. I received a Flip for christmas and will se what I can do to bring some video content to the site. I'm not sure how interesting it will be to watch someone else paint or play games but I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out. 

Keeping it simple seems to be the smartest way to insure that I can accomplish the goals I set for myself so hopefully I'll be able to stick to them and make 2011 a great year.

Now readers I have to ask what are your resolutions?

Movie Review – True Grit

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Last night I went to see True Grit, and I have to say this is an amazing movie. I wasn't aware prior to seeing it that it was a remake of a 1969 John Wayne movie, but I'll be bumping that up to the top of my Netflix que to see how they compare.

The visuals are everything you'd want in a western wide open spaces as well as suitably gritty interior locations. For Malifaux players I'm sure you can glean some inspiration for scenery and terrain from this film. I particularly liked the use of snow in several of the scenes. It adds to the mood of the film without blanketing it in a frozen wasteland.

The dialogue is period accurate yet still feels witty and clever. Most period films either feel forced or will update the dialog to be current. Jeff Bridges does an excellent job in the role of Rooster Cogburn, adding just a touch of comedy to the hard drinking marshall's persona. His co-star Hailee Steinfeld is also great in the role of Mattie Ross. The chemistry between the two is classic.

I highly recommend checking this film out, it's a nice break from the overproduced all CGI productions that have been flooding theaters as of late. The film is relatively kid-freindly as well, so long as slightly graphic corpses don't cause your kids to have nightmares.

Another year older...

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I love December. Having my birthday and christmas in the same month usually means lots of new games. Earlier this month we celebrated both my and my wife's birthdays. Hers tends to fall Thanksgiving weekend so we'll celebrate with family all in one go.

This year I was lucky enough to receive the Myths and Legends expansion for Small World. I'm really looking forward to trying this out as it seems to add a whole new level to the game. As with the original game the art is fun and clever. On the board game front I also received Call of Chthulu LCG and the Chthulu Dice game. The card game seems similar to Magic the Gathering without the collectible aspect. Chthulu Dice is a variation on LRC with different terms and a funky 12-sided die.

Quick side note: Recently I watched Chthulu (2007) this is by far one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Be forewarned it is a giant waste of time. 

On the RPG front I was fortunate enough to receive the Deathwatch core rules and the Rogue Trader: Into the Storm expansion. Both live up to Fantasy Flight's high level of quality and I look forward to eventually nailing down a day each month to run a campaign. RPG's have been notoriously difficult to run with my usual gaming crew but everyone seems interested in this system. It seems like the nature of it will also lend itself well to players being absent for a session.

Weathering the Storm

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Warhammer 40K – Sunday was supposed to be the first gaming session in the newly remodeled game room. However due to a snow storm most of the guys were unable to make it out.

Luckily Brian (paperbag fox) braved the weather to get in a game. We decided to play a quick 750 point game of 40K. After setting up a ruined city overgrown by the jungle we rolled up annihilation with corner deployment.

I don't remember his exact list but this is one of my stan-by lists, it takes advantage of the stock unit choices:

• Captain with bolter and hellfire rounds and a power axe

• 5-man tactical squad in a Razorback with lascannons

• 10-man tactical squad in a Rhino with flamer and missile launcher 

• 10-man tactical squad in a Rhino with flamer and missile launcher 

• Assault Bike with Multi-melta 

The game mostly went my way due to clever deployment and combat squads. I was able to cause his two big mobs of boyz to route after heavy casualties. His Warboss decimated a squad, but they were able to hold out long enough for the calvary to arrive and gun down the massive beast.

Small point games don't play to the strengths of the Orks. It probably didn't help that he had quite a few points tied up into some Killa Kans that didn't make much impact on the game.

On the Painting Table...

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TE_paintingtable1282010.jpg

Malifaux – Finally getting back in the swing of things a working on some new commissions. On the table we have an Executioner, Electrical Creation, Enslaved Nephimlim, Purifying Flame and Scales of Justice.

Assembling the Scales of Justice is a huge pain. The next time I put one together I'll glue the pans to the chain first. I didn't do that this time and had to hold the pans in place until it dried (I don't use accelerant because it weakens the bond). Once you get around the difficulties of assembly it's a really cool model. 

I think this is the third or forth Electrical Creation I've assembled and painted. At this point I've gotten really good at getting the electricity arcs to quickly bond. The bag/tentacles are still weird no matter how many times I paint them but with a bit of work you can highlight them so they look more like a torn bag and less like fleshy tentacles.

Painting fire is one of my least favorite things, mostly because getting it to look remotely realistic is a tedious affair. I've found working with a light yellow and layering up various shades of yellow, orange and red is most effective. Then to smooth the transitions I wash with a yellow or orange ink. 

I dread painting the flesh of the executioner. My biggest issue with the model is the large smooth belly. I've seen many variations that add hair or tattoos to break up the area, but most of those techniques are more time consuming than I'm willing to do on a table top quality piece. With a bit of layering you can get a nice finish however. I really wish that if Wyrd does an alternate sculpt of the model that it include sculpted hair. 

The Nephilim is really simple and the amount of detail on the model makes it easy to quickly accomplish a nice tabletop finish. For the flesh I used an Ivory color washed with Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted with the same color. I think this is the easiest way to paint pale otherworldly flesh. I'll probably do a light purple wash to make the flesh of the torn wings look bruised.