Violent Dark (1) - Intro and Other Games April

 Hello

No secrets here that I'm sort of a fan of Black Site Studios. I think the stuff they make is neat. Our game of the year on the podcast the year it was released was Don't Look Back (second edition preordered already) and I have most of their games. There's a neat push right now through several content creators for what is being referred to as "Other Games April" this Miniac video sums it up but basically its a spotlight on indie games. In honor of the event and because I never touched this stuff after the first week, I decided I wanted to focus in and try and get my Black Site Games on the table this month if at all possible. DemonShip is coming (not soon enough) and we're going to start with Violent Dark

I backed this project through the BSS Backroom program which is a sorta-kickstarter program. I backed the second highest tier as I didn't think I needed the mdf terrain. At adepticon last year I picked up most of the other releases I didn't have. Here's the haul

Violent Dark is a co-op and solo focused space thriller in the vein of aliens. You control 4 crew members, theres missions, its got fun looking rules that I'll cover once the game's hit the table. 

Aparently I got as far as assembling the core set and getting paint on two pieces. It looks like I printed the bases for most of the crew but as the FDM printer is currently down, I've got a back up plan for the rest. 

The aliens we're a very slight disapointment. Mostly, I wish they fit on the bases provided. The resin is a touch spindly and bendy and they just don't sit nice on the slightly too small bases. I'm not sure how I'm going to paint these yet. You do get a ton of bits for them which is neat.

As a part of the initial buy in, and available later, there are a few expansion type pieces. One of these is rogue synths which adds a new type of threat. 

There was also a vac-suit and xenos hugger type of expansion

The xenos one comes with new rules for the threat. These are almost definitely my favorite sculpts in the set.

These expansions came packaged in the same bags as the bonus minis. The bonus minis were a few more crew, some turret guns and this cat.

After digging everything out I got most of everything built save for a couple aliens and the turrets. I also opted to leave the synths in the box for now. The plan is to get this on the table soon so we're going to start with an alien and two more crew as a minimum. 

Will report back soon

Deadzone (1) - Mazon Labs Starter

 I picked these up at Adepticon 2023. I actually got home from the show on Sunday, unpacked the car, and primed them. I wanted to crack these out as quick as possible so the majority of the heavy lifting is contrast paint. This project ended up taking about a week all told. I thought I'd end up finishing them on Monday but ended up not picking up a brush for most of the day and opted to just chip away on these throughout the week. We're just going to need to deal with some god awful photos for a while as well folks. The lighting in this area is just not good for this but I'd really like to continue blogging.

  I don't have a ton of love for these figures. They were all one piece castings except for the leader who was 3 resin pieces. As mentioned I let the contrast do the lifting and wanted to crack them out pretty quick. We also managed to get a game in where they lost pretty harshly. I'd like to get a few more games in before I move over to veer-myn as a more permanent home. Still, a nice quick project to kick off some painting mojo. While working on these I chipped away on a bunch of other stuff putting either finishing touches or dents in other projects so it was nice to be at the desk this much. In no particular order are some shots from the game (I lost 12-0) and some "close ups" (I know they're bad). I'll plan on taking a few nicer photo booth photos when I finish more figures for the faction down the road but for now its progress

As an aside, This is another goal on the list 

 Play Deadzone

 

On to the next project

Adepticon 2023 Haul

 Hello.

2 posts in one day. Crazy right? This ones super quick and dirty. We went to Adepticon for Saturday and part of Sunday. I spent a fraction of what I thought I would this year. I had a couple key purchases in mind and was sort of surprised at just how much stuff was out of stock or vendors didn't bring. I was also surprised at how many vendors were there with booths but no, or very little, actual product. 

Heres the haul.

First of all, I set out with the specific intention of purchasing the Firefight Veermyn Starter box. No one had it. Mantic told me they sold out of everything veermyn except one vehicle on Thursday. These things happen but it was a touch disappointing to find that out.

I ended up ebaying one from the show but for obvious reasons its not in the photo. 

The surprise highlight was Demon Ship. This is a nice quick "microgame" from Malev Minis (thru Blacksite Studio) I've been following the progress of on instagram. I got a chance to demo the game with Malev himself and had him sign my demo copy. What I was not expecting was to be able to preorder the set from the booth. I was told it would ship in a couple weeks and I'm gonna cover the game in full when it gets here. It was a definite Highlight of the show for me though.

I picked up a couple packs of figs from them as well but didnt go to heavy as theres a second edition on preorder now and I wasn't sure what would translate and how.

I also picked up some eightbound and a couple chibi figures from Impact to put on my shelf. Five Leagues is a solo/coop fantasy game. My wife was interested in rangers of shadow deep this time last year but we've found the figure and terrain requirements a bit of a road block and I'm wondering if this might be an easier sell.

The angry chicken is a con exclusive mini and scenario for conquest. 

Finally with money still burning a hole in my pocket I picked up two sets of Mazon Labs for Deadzone. I was not expecting these to be single part casts (except one figure) and theyve already been cleaned, primed, and by the time this posts at least partially painted. 

I also got a sweet leatherface bust from Black Heart but don't have a good pic at the moment and I also picked up a Game Envy wet palette which was sold out but will ship soon I'm told.

We did try a few games and I will give super brief thoughts below

Demon Core - No relation to the above game. This is a "warcry like" skirmish game in development from Bestiarum Minis. It was great to meet the designer and we chatted at length about having a great excuse to finally print the figures. More on this in a month or two when the patreon or kickstarter is announced.

Creature Caster Judgement - A year ago I would've bought this in a heartbeat. Now a days I'm more aware of what will hit my table and I just can't imagine I'll ever play it. I enjoyed the demo but ultimately passed. If its at adepticon next year I may cave. I really wish this was out before Aristeia as I really only have room for one of these arena type games and this was a little more fun.

 Hobgoblin - This is a mass battle game from the creator of Gaslands. I got to meet the other author (whos name I don't remember, a fact I feel awful about) who is also the editor of Blaster Mag. The game was neat but frankly uninspiring. It seems to be a mass battle game with generic units where you can points buy keywords. I loved the system in Fantastic Battles but this isnt anything new. What was inspiring was the demo giver's army. 3d printing from One Page Rules, he had a nice sized beastman army. I will probably pick up the rules based on simplicity but we'll see what the kickstarter looks like.

All in all, I had a great time catching up with friends and looking at inspiring stuff. "visit a convention" was on my list for the year, though I'd still like to attend an event before years end where I play a game or two. 

Follow up posts coming soon.

Checking in on Hobby Goals

This will post while I'm at adepticon presumably screwing the whole list up and making all sorts of lofty mistakes.

 Though I didn't adhere to my original plan of "roughly two goals a month" I have been making steady progress on a few of these goals. Here is the updated list with some break downs

End the year with a sub 200 Golf Score

    The year of course is not yet over but as of this writing we're sitting pretty at 141. This was after receiving an all in pledge on yafsiga and selling off my Conquest Spires and AOS Slaanesh force.

Begin the Lord of the Rings Ringbearer Campaign

    I did paint a couple more figures for this and actually (using the mines of moria plastics) have enough to play the first scenario.

Play Spectre Ops

    Purchased a box of Wargames Atlantic Afghans and the digital conversion set from WAA

Print and Paint two sets of Team Fortress 2 Figures

    Printed one and a half sets and put paint on at least 4 of the figures.

Play To The Strongest with painted 10mm figures

Finally Try Age of Hannibal

    Both this and the goal above were waiting on bases to continue which have since arrived.

Play a game of A Song of Ice and Fire with a painted Baratheon Force

Finish 2k points of Old Dominion for Conquest and play a game

Completely Paint 2 complete factions for Crisis Protocol

    I have assembled everything in spider foes and am about halfway through painting it all. 

Finally Try Moonstone

Finally Try Mad Maximilian

Play at least one game of Necromunda

     Managed to play a game with my wife in February

Try Necropolis28

Try Mordheim

    3d printed an entire warband of witch hunters and roped two friends into a test game in april.

Play a Game of War of the Ring

Play a game of Horus Heresy

Finish at least one Cabinet piece (resin probably)

Play both Sludge and Turnip

Try the new edition of Kill Team

Play Never Mind the Billhooks

Attend one tourney or play event

Finish my Death ray Designs City Board

 

Now heres the bad news. This list was the original list that I had hoped to acomplish this year. Unfortunately (as one is to do with such severe hobby ADD as I have) there are a few other tasks I really want to try to knock out this year

Try Verrotwood

Finish my 3d printed Boarding Action board

Try One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish

Play a game of Brawl Arcane 28

Sculpt Print and Paint something of my own

Try Conquest First Blood

Try Battlefleet gothic and OPR equivalent

Play Deadzone

I know its awfully ambitious of me to add things to the original list when we're not even out of march, the list is barely cracked and some of these are completely unrelated or rather extravagant. I am who I am and I am want to give it a try.

Goal Completed - Try Moonstone

 So the wife and I had a chance to get some gaming in this past weekend and I had just put the finishing touches on the Moonstone Starter box I've been working on since lord knows when. I'm not generally one for an after action report but the game basically came down to the roll off for first activation of the final turn. It was a super close game with my wife playing the Goblins and me playing the humans. I went ahead and started prepping Boulder to add to my collection and something about the figure has grabbed me in a way figures haven't grabbed me in a while. Expect more photos of moonstone stuff down the road

Here are the contents of the two player starter box. I'll do a quick write up sometime soon about how i did the bases because they weren't a lot of effort and I'm very happy with them.  

As a starter set I think its a great buy, you get just enough to decide if you want to buy further and as a contained experience it was enjoyable. It has super unique mechanics and played quickly.

I managed to actually get a second game in as well and have some further quick thoughts on the rules. I think the game is really solid but I'm not sure where it sits on my shelf. I enjoyed it quite a bit and absolutely loved painting the models but with a lot of boutique games I feel like the sweet spot is "a group who plays where everyone has their own faction/collection" and with this game I simply can't imagine a group where a few people go in on it. Maybe it exists better as a convention style multiplayer game? I think the game is an underrated gem but I do sort of feel like I understand why I haven't spoke to anyone else playing it. Thankfully I love the figures enough that I'm happy with my small (and probably still growing) collection but I do wonder how often I'll end up playing it. 

I'd like to try a 3 player, a 4 player and maybe a campaign game before I decide if it will hit the table or go into the cabinet but I just adore the figures so much that I may just paint what I have. Either way this completes one of my self challenges and for that I'm happy. 

As a totally unrelated aside, I think my biggest road block to blogging has been pictures. I really want to get this thing rolling (case in point this was originally written on Jan 28.) but the room I paint in now is terrible for photos, and it always seems like such an ordeal to drag stuff upstairs just for photos. I've already easily done more hobby so far this year than last year in total but you'd never know it from lack of social media posting.

Team Fortress 2 Project (1) - Test Figure

 I've been long obsessed with the team based online shooter, Team Fortress 2. I've pumped  a little over 300 hours into the game according to steam which for me is a lot. I haven't played in a while now but this is a project I've had on the back of my mind for a while. 

Originally I was planning on writing a set of rules specifically to do skirmish gaming with the franchise but I have some different ideas to adapt a ruleset now. For now I just want to paint all 18 figures (and a couple accessories) and have a collection. If a game happens, cool, but I'm not sweating that. 

When I first got an idea to do this I found some files on Thingiverse and squirelled them away. Unfortunately as best laid plans go, this was going to throw up a bit of a roadblock. The files I found are super low res. Years ago, before I knew about printing and long before having a resin printer, I printed the scout in fdm and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I had no clue the low res was part of the sculpt. I'm guessing these are ripped right from the game but I'm not sure. 

Heres a WIP photo with a bit of paint on it. I was gonna post a primed example but I forgot to get a photo and dove right into the painting.

 

I'm completely fine with a block paint and leaving it at that. First of all, these are just to have. There's no planned game or anything yet so I mostly just want "the complete set" with paint on it. Second of all, I think this style of no contrast painting works fine on these figures and the aesthetic of the game. I've got a few of the other classes already printed. I've been getting lucky with auto supports so far. I did have a couple pieces come off and break while removing supports but to be honest, theres no way stuff like the engineers lasso bit was going to last once the print was cured. More soon.

New Year, New Hobbies

 I feel like every year I start the year off with some sort of vague attempt to quantify the hobby or set goals or expectations and this year is no different.

I had a very interesting 2022. I got married, truly dived into a new career and generally I've changed a bit how I've felt about the hobby. I've waxed lyrical about how I feel about hobby content creation over the years on various platforms and I'll save that for a different post but for now I simply just want to lay out some plans for the year and attempt to make a bit better use of this platform going forward.

On New Years Eve, while watching The Banshees of Inisherin (absolutely wonderful by the way) I took a few minutes to write down a few "concrete goals" This year I just wanted to pick a bunch of stuff to get acomplished across the hobby as opposed to a static number of figures. A fair few of these are simply revolved around playing more games. Any time a goal says "play" I fully intend to have all of my figures involved in said game fully painted. Without further ado;

 

End the year with a sub 200 Golf Score

Begin the Lord of the Rings Ringbearer Campaign

Play Spectre Ops

Print and Paint two sets of Team Fortress 2 Figures

Play To The Strongest with painted 10mm figures

Finally Try Age of Hannibal

Play a game of A Song of Ice and Fire with a painted Baratheon Force

Finish 2k points of Old Dominion for Conquest and play a game

Completely Paint 2 complete factions for Crisis Protocol

Finally Try Moonstone

Finally Try Mad Maximilian

Play at least one game of Necromunda

Try Necropolis28

Try Mordheim

Play a Game of War of the Ring

Play a game of Horus Heresy

Finish at least one Cabinet piece (resin probably)

Play both Sludge and Turnip

Try the new edition of Kill Team

Play Never Mind the Billhooks

Attend one tourney or play event

Finish my Death ray Designs City Board

I intentionally picked mostly projects that were at least partially started in an attempt to finish some of these desk hogs while still allowing me some wiggle room to experiment with whatever new nonsense catches my eye. Ideally I want to finish the year out with a negative golf score but after looking over my numbers for last year (which come to grave with me) sub 200 is a real milestone. 

I've already made a great stride into one of these goals and am starting in on a second already so I feel surprisingly confident already. Theres approximately 22 line items here so to keep on pace i'd like to accomplish at least 2 of these a month.