Tuesday, October 4, 2016
A Quite Fall
I have woefully, slipped away again from the blog. While I have been painting terrain and figures
for my large fantasy project, I just have not made time to get the photos done and I've lost the urge to do alot of "WIP" posts. I am currently working on the castle from my "blackbarrow" table and its all Hirts Arts so its going slowly casting as I build , but the end is in sight. Most of my Summer going into the massive 8" fieldstone Tower that is key piece of the design. I've also painted a dozen or so denizens of the town from adventurers to creatures to villagers and furniture for my Inn that I posted earlier this year. its quite the fun project, just far removed from the usual gaming related painting I do.
Speaking of Fantasy I wanted to give a shout out to Diehard Miniatures whose last miniatures are in my primed and modeled up que just waiting for the brush. Diehards new kickstarters has begun focusing on Eru-Kin which are essentially classic Warhammer style lizard me in both Fantasy and Sci Fi settings. I was an Oldhammer player and ever got my Lizardmen going I would snatch up bunch of these. As is I am in one "add on" only pledge as I am looking at some Snakemen for a future project.
Anyway if this might interest you Diehard is solid company that delivers high quality on time, which is always a good thing when it comes to Kickstarters. You can out the newest KS here.
In other news Warlord Games Bolt Action 2nd Edition was released this month, I got my new rules a couple weeks ago, and I like what I read. Although I havent played yet, and not sure when I will.
My last tournament in the spring left a bad taste in mouth for tournaments overall. (not the game) and left me feeling in retrospect that maybe I am just over them. I've been doing them for 10 years and they are a ton of work. As I said about WFB years ago when that started sliding toward the abyss ( for me that was just after I had a lousy time in an oversized 150 person WFB event ) If you are not having fun anymore its time to re-analyze how you spend your time. Anyway, I've found myself unhappy with the last couple tournaments I have been in for Bolt Action, either through unfortunate games with strangers or just not being happy with handling and operation of the event. I certainly dont want to be "that guy" so Its time I take a breather. Unfortunately that means I miss my favorite event this year. Operation Sting. but truth be told alot of other real life circumstance were in the way as well so my remorse here about gaming is only part of the story. I'm still going to try to flesh both my Axis (German) and Allied (Great Britian) forces for spring in case I want to take the plunge again. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try out the rules some point soon. moving onward always.
I hope to get back here soon with big updates, I'm working on it.
Posted by John@Plasticlegions.blogspot.com at 9:53 AM 5 comments
Labels: Bolt Action, Commentary, Diehard Miniatures, Kickstarter
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Deadzone 2, Review and AAR.
I've only ever played a couple demo games of the Original Deadzone, acquiring a handful of models along the way as I liked the look of them for generic sci fi gaming. 18 months after my initial Deadzone trials, I find myself with a bunch of models, my Kickstarter pledge delivered and exactly 1 Deadzone 2 Demo under my belt played at Adepticon this year.
While Mantic has retooled and geared Deadzone 2 to be the boardgame-esque companion game to its new "Warpath" game system. ( a 40K competitor large format Sci Fi wargame, ) I do think Mantic somewhat missed the boat here. Originally Deadzone was presented as Mantic's only Sci Fi wargame entry. Uniquely different from 40K It had found itself a good niche. However it seems the resulting success of Kings of War, (almost entirely due to Games Workshop blowing up Warhammer Fantasy) somehow clouded Mantic's judgement into thinking a 40K style entry could do similarly well and the "new" Deadzone sort of just got piled in with that.
While I am glad it did it as I could care less about Warpath, and I am kind of thinking alot of gamers who like the genre will not care either ,because if you want a game "like" 40K you just play 40K, Which leaves a a small percentage of outcasts that like the genre but don't like 40K , for whatever reason and want to invest in Warpath.
I have some actual mantic models done here, mainly Rebs 5 of 8 models, but the Enforcers ,except for one , Pathfinder Sniper, are proxied by my Reaper Nova Corp who seem to fit right in. Terrain is all new from Kickstarter , with the exception of the grey command building which is from the Urban terrain set. Things are not totally done yet, I'm still getting into it but I modeled up the buildings and got the spray cans out a couple sundays ago..Here is how the game went:
The board- this is basic KS terrain set plus a couple Urban Sprues for the grey building. |
Enforcers (proxied Reaper Nova Corp, the Strider is a Robotech promo model from 2 year back) |
Rebs, a mix of Mantic and Reaper figures |
ROUND 1
Shoots and Misses...Teraton has more survive success than Strider had hits. |
Enforcer in foreground shot down by Yndij Trooper |
Seemed like a good idea, she did wound the Strider, but leaving her in postion to be blasted next turn, bad idea. |
END OF ROUND 1
ROUND 2
The Strider vaporizes both the Reb Commander and Troop on the corner of the Red Building here. |
ENFORCER TURN
Yndij Trooper Pinned by Enforcer Rapid Fire. |
ROUND 3
With the relative ease the Strider withdrew, I knew the Teraton was in big trouble |
Posted by John@Plasticlegions.blogspot.com at 12:21 AM 0 comments
Labels: After Action Report, Deadzone, Mantic Games
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter Review.
Last Saturday I received my Kickstarter Pledge from Diehard Miniatures a new company by sculptor Tim Prow, with Sculptors Chaz Elliot and Drew Williams..all guys with long lists of sculpting credits with A list companies like Reaper, Ral Partha, Wargames Foundry and Wizards of the Coast*, (*when they actually made good miniatures during D&D 3rd Ed) These generic fantasy figures, were marketed as "Oldhammer" which has taken on several meanings over the years but basically if your into Fantasy RPG gaming, its the OSR (old School Rules) of wargaming, Miniatures wise it focuses on the classic age of Citadel Miniatures 1983-1987, but often includes later figures depending on what you are into.
Anyway. I really liked alot of these figures, So I went for the 10 figure pledge, they were pricey at about $8 USD a figure but that's on par with what I pay for premium new metal figures these days. With all the plastic figures out there in the $2-3 range, people like to get all worked up over figures at this price, but coincidentally I am currently painting some really high end plastics right now and they just don't compare to these Pewter figures so I wanted to review them publicly as they came out very, very good.
As for the Kickstarter campaign , it delivered in just over 6 months, which is the new record for any miniatures related Kickstarter I have been involved in. Overall the campaign was flawless, as far as I can tell (there arent any outraged backers in comments section demanding blood, and that's kind of a new one compared to some of the stuff I have been involved in. ) The resulting figures are just lovely, Now, despite my 10 figure pledge , I did only end up with 6 Figures and 2 KS backer freebies. Because I choose 4, large figures, each of which counted as two choices.
I broke my purchases down into 3 categories, Heroes (2), Undead (2) and Monsters (2)
The figures are:
Hillsman ( half-giant)
Undead Minotaur
Undead Knight
Troll
Son of Slomm (chaos beast)
There all for basic fantasy gaming, they scale perfectly with lines like Otherworld, Reaper, and Citadel miniatures..so they fit right in with my core collection, I'll be painting some of them up soon, some later as I need them. As I mentioned I received them Saturday and had them all modeled up and primed by Sunday evening.
Overall the miniatures where exactly as pictured or described, fantastic casts, very minimal mold lines , there was some additional flash on the larger models but nothing remotely problematic.
The only critique and its really a sculptors prerogative is the pose of the Minotaur was so elongated I had to put him on 60mm base and he's still hanging off, which is ok as he works as a large monster for games on a 60mm, but I kind wish I could have got him on a 40mm
That aside, I am quite happy with these and look forward to painting them, since I photographed a bunch of black primed models here, I've included some of the pictures from the KS so you can the models are exactly as advertised.
Diehard is doing another Kickstarter in October, not sure If I'll jump in or not as I'm on a KS moratorium for a good while, but what I see is on the Facebook page is looking really good.
If you missed the original figures first time around, I believe they will be available this time around
as well, check it out.
As for the final review, as far as Kickstarters go this one is 5 out of 5 Stars.
Posted by John@Plasticlegions.blogspot.com at 11:35 PM 1 comments
Labels: Diehard Miniatures, Fantasy Gaming, Kickstarter, Reviews
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Otherworld Skirmish, Green Magic Part 2
Picking up where we left off.... |
Sucessful Mystic Web Cast! |
Note the climbing, but fallen and stunned Ghoul on the right. |
Victory! |
Posted by John@Plasticlegions.blogspot.com at 12:09 AM 4 comments
Labels: Fantasy Gaming, Otherworld Minatures, Otherworld Skirmish, Village of Blackbarrow
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Otherworld Skirmish- Green Magic.
Grym, Neb, Mott |
Scorpa, Raiden, Elazar |
Here you can see wear the fireball set one Skeleton "on fire" and destroyed 1 Ghoul. |
End of Turn 1 |
excuse the legos needed something to hold up figures climbing the tower..note the Ghoul on , the Thief Mott. |
Climbing after Neb , Ghoul 1, Neb victoriously has reached the top! |
A bunch more where he came from (the wandering monster board) |
End of Turn 3, One Skeleton Dead, 2 Ghouls 2, One Thief Dead, The Lich cackles. |
Posted by John@Plasticlegions.blogspot.com at 10:43 PM 0 comments
Labels: Fantasy Gaming, Otherworld Minatures, Otherworld Skirmish, Village of Blackbarrow