A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
MERCs – At one point this was my go to skirmish game. The models and background were great. The movement and force selection mechanics were innovative. Everything seemed to be coming up roses. I loved this game so much I adapted the mechanics to do a Zombie version of the game.
Read MoreMERCS? – Our annual Halloween zombie fest happened again this year. Ben took the iniative to create a Left 4 Dead variation using the Zombie rules I came up with a while back and generic survivors. Basically the table was set up as a 3'x6' board covered with terrain. The survivors have to run across the board to grab and objective and then run back to trigger the escape button. Easy right?
To start the survivors have no weapons. Throughout the board are random tokens that allow you to either heal or draw an item card. This is how your character levels up during the game. Essentially going from a sneak-theif to a bad ass zombie killer. The rules set is based on MERCS with movement cards and firing numbers. It worked really well and fit the bill for what we were trying to do.
Zombies are loosely controlled by a GM spawing a random number each turn and moving toward what ever they can see. If the survivors fire a gun or kill something it generates noise which overrides the LOS movement.
Once the survivors reach a set point on the board an event triggers which essentially changed the rules of the game. The instance we had was a flash flood. Which reduced movement and increased firing numbers.
The surviors died several times while moving across the board and had to be respawned by a teamate to continue the game. We made it to the objective and then had to call the game because the store was closing.
Overall it was really fun, in our post game parking lot discussion we had some tweaks we would make to the game to make it move a little faster and smoother.
• Reduce the size of the map – 6' is really far to cross when your model moves and average of 6" per turn. I think with a 4' map we'd be golden and have a shot.
• Give survivors a basic weapon – Having to run a grab items was fun, but it seriously slowed down the first part of the game and forced the survivors to make some "bad" moves.
• Allow models to "fire and move" or "melee and move"– some spots where we had to choose to kill a zombie or run made it impossible to get away. Thematic for sure but it's more fun for players to be able to smash skulls then to run and hide.
MERCS – I finished up the sefadu Megacon the other day. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. The tribal markings on the helms were tricky but I think keeping a simple pattern makes them less busy. To do the yellow I thinned out some Tau Sept Ochre and lightly outlined the pattern. Once I was happy with that I added a second coat of the Ochre to thicken the lines. I then went in with a bright yellow and added some hightlights to make them pop a bit more.
I added some tall grass stalks to the bases. I think it feels close to the photos I've seen of Africa or at least is a good facsimile. As with all my models I added some felt to the base to help keep them from tipping over on an uneven surface and sealed them with a matte clear coat.
Next up is the USCR on crystal clear Ice Bases. Eventually I'd like to own all the Megacons. MERCS probably won't ever be my main game but the small model count and fast paced game length makes for a great once in a while game. I find it really enjoyable to paint a single six man squad. It's not enough to get burnt out on, but just enough to tie together with a single paint scheme.
If you'd like to learn more about MERCS the quickstart rules are online here.
MERCS - After my regular Malifaux Demo night, a few of the guys stuck around to play some MERCS. Since I already had a swamp board set up we decided to play a three-way game in the swamps.
Prior to the game starting we set-up some ground rules so the game didn't devolve into shooting from your deployment zone.
• No shooting from your deployment zone turn one
• Plants are infinitely high tubes originating from the base
• Set-up is as close to an equilateral triangle as possible
• Last man standing wins
I chose to play my KemVar, leaving the sniper on the bench. My opponents played Keizai Waza and sefadu. For the deployment I set-up two groups of two MERCS and the Heavy holding my deployment zone, in what I thought was the perfect spot to cover the board. (having forgotten the ground rules we set-up during deployment, it wasn't as sweet as I thought).
he game played hard and fast with the Waza player spreading out over the board, and sefadu coming at both opponents with a two pronged attack. I was able to neutralize the Waza sniper with my demo. Once my Heavy was set and overwatching things got interesting. I unloaded with him and killed (2) sefadu, (1) Waza and my assassin because of his sweet position. This also triggered two overwatches from the sefadu and Waza players which finished off the carnage my Heavy started.
The sefadu Demo took out my Leader and Monkey Wrench with several salvos of Fire grenades. After another crazy Overwatch trigger fest the sefadu player was eliminated and I just had my Heavy and Demo left. The cagey Waza player creeped up taking advantage of the tree cover (which I forgot blocked LOS completely) and was able to pick me off for the win.
The more I play this game the more I love it. I can't really see it as a competitive game, but as something to play just to relax and have fun it's really worth the low cost of entry. We were discussing this after the game and realized that for the amount that I paid (several price increases ago, remember when Rhinos were less than $30) for the transports in my Space Marine company, you can have all the factions, battlefoam bag, terrain mats, GF9 Tokens and rule book for this game. Think about that for a minute.
