Thinking Outside the Box

Seb dropped by on Saturday for some beer, so we fired up a game of Power Legion  to go along with it. He took the Exiles while I played using some evil guys in grey. Zyklon went after Blink but was promptly pounced upon by Sasquatch. He fought his way back to his feet while Kriegeshunde made his way to help out. Nocturne took up a position atop the nearby containers to protect her teammates from the oncoming soldiers. Morph and Spider-Man split off to avoid being flanked. Morph used his crazy stretching ability to try hitting Zyklon while he was down with little success. (We did note that his stretching die needs to be dropped down to reduce the distance that he can attack from.) My soldiers rolled some awesome activations and surged ahead to cut off Spider-Man and Morph. One of them took aim and scored a lucky shot on Spider-Man, KOing him to the cheers of his comrades. Nocturne responded by dispatching one of the soldiers trying to creep up on the melee Zyklon was embroi...

Yesterday we played our final Organized Play  event of the year for Star Trek Attack Wing :    "The Tholian Web." Now you might wonder why we were playing a scenario from six months ago, so I'll explain. Back when this tournament was supposed to be run our shop didn't get the OP kit in time for me to hold the event. It did arrive later, but we had other kits for tournaments to run and I didn't want to be running a month behind for the rest of the year, so I opted to wait for an opportune moment. After "Resistance is Futile" OP2 it was looking very likely that we wouldn't be receiving the month 3 kit in time to hold that event before Christmas, so we played the Tholian Web scenario, but this time with a twist: we played 100-point lists but used the extra RiF boosters to add an extra 30 points of mayhem to the games. I'm happy to say that everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and we had an excellent turnout. There were a few Federatio...

No, no, no, I'm not advocating any kind of violence towards others during the holiday season (even though you might have some dangerous thoughts while all of your family is starting in on their fifth Christmas carol round the piano). "Season's Beatings" is the name of a Yuletide events chart for Strange Aeons . You can download it, as well as two holiday-themed scenarios, over at www.strange-aeons.ca in their Resources section. I've also linked directly to them below, but head over there anyway. There's a lot of other good stuff to see too! - Season's Beatings - Nightmare on 34th Street - Christmas With Krampus I'll shamefully confess that I have not played either of these scenarios, nor have I used the event chart. However, I was reminded of them after receiving some holiday gaming goodness from jolly old Uncle Mike. As I was going through all those lovely resin bits, I remembered my Black Goat special Maniac Santa figure! I had meant to paint ...

With 2014 winding to a close I thought I'd post another Kickstarter  round-up, because I find them interesting. Move along if you don't care...but happy holidays regardless! :D Achtung!Cthulhu These guys have done a great job putting together all the materials they promised during the campaign. I'm still waiting on a few books: - Shadows of Atlantis campaign - Assault on the Mountains of Madness campaign - Editable Dossiers - Dust mashup - Godlike supplement Age of Conan expansion Just last week I went through their web site to submit my "order" and paid the shipping fees. I'm hopeful that this one will actually be delivered on time. Carnevale 2nd Edition Fees have been collected, and their 1st survey was made available a few days ago. I've already filled mine out, but I'm not sure when the second one will show up, which will allow us to select all of our add-ons and other goodies. Deadzone This one has been pretty lengthy, w...

Over on Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher , Hendybadger is doing a Christmas giveaway for some pretty sweet Batman figures from Knight Models  for their Batman Miniatures game. I don't usually post links to contests, but there it is.

These were among some of the first pulp-themed figures I purchased. Come to think of it, I believe I've had these for nearly three years! They're one of the original sets of investigators from Uncle Mike's Worldwide , purveyors of the fine game Strange Aeons . If memory serves I based and primed these figures nearly two years ago, after which time they sat on my priming board atop the refrigerator, awaiting paint. I've got dozens of figures in the same condition, and several others sitting next to my painting desk in partially completed states. I don't know why I decided to paint these, other than the fact that the stuff on my desk all looked less than appealing when I sat down to paint the other night. Currently my Threshold list doesn't need new members, but I know how that can change in an instant. It's always good to be prepared when dealing with unfathomable nightmarish creatures, dastardly cultists and fickle dice that constantly test ones sanity. ...

As a miniature wargamer, Mordheim is one of those games that you hear about quite often. It's like that popular movie from the 80s that everyone seems to have seen except you. What little I knew about Mordhiem before last week amounted to this: It's a fantasy skirmish game It's based on Games Workshop 's mass battle fantasy game Warhammer Fantasy Battles (you can see how they really stretched for a name on that one...) It's yet another game that people seemed to love that GW no longer supports Like some of the other specialist GW games, the rules took on a life of their own and were, for a brief time, available for free download from their website. I was given a copy of the rules and built a warband. I fully admit that I only skimmed through the book until I found the undead section, where I set about building a team based on figures I actually owned. We played a three player game last night. After only one game my overall thoughts on th...

November 25, 1924 From: Carl Selinger To: Director Silver, Calgary Field Office RE: Case File SA2-141125-MA Last week my team was investigating the rumours of a large creature near Dead Man's Flats west of Calgary. The rumours proved to be factual; we found the beast near the small church north-east of the settlement. It was easily double the height of a normal man with pallid oozing skin, no visible eyes or mouths, and copious amount of tentacular appendages. The beast proved surprisingly agile and was nearly upon us in moments. Dynamite seemed a prudent choice and we were lucky Agent Moreau was able to tap into her psychic abilities to help Agent Carter focus his efforts. Randolph ran forward and landed a lucky shot with his incendiaries, but was immediately pounced upon by the monster. We feared him dead as the beast continued its pursuit. My own gunfire proved ineffectual in slowing the tentacled mass, but Agent Daniels valiantly jumped in its path and disappeared scr...

I've been away for a while, but following on from my Exiles repaints last month I thought I might as well share the Power Legion profiles that I put together for those characters. Keep in mind that I haven't tested these in actual game play yet, so they might not be very balanced. If you do try any of the character profiles please let me know how they work out for you. I'm certainly open to hearing your feedback. Blink (502 pts) M: d6 A: d8 S: d4 K: d6 Lethal HTH Attack d6 Martial Arts d8 Ranged Damage d8 Teleport d8 (Trick: Instead of rolling damage after hitting with a ranged attack, teleport the target instead.  Trick: Teleport an adjacent, willing friend.   For both tricks, the passenger must make a Knockout roll vs. D8 or be Stunned. ) King Hyperion (1292 pts) M: d8 A: d10 S: d12 K: d12 Armor d12 Flight d12 Ranged Damage d12 Superspeed d12 X-Ray Vision d12 Morph (415 pts) M: d4 A: d12 S: d4 K: d8 Acrobat Difficult Target Entang...

I have a lot of Heroclix figures. Hundreds I'm sure. I don't actively play any more, but I do pick up extras from the current sets from my friends when I'm able. Most of these figures I'm showing off here are older ones from my collection. William provided me with a couple of newer ones like Sasquatch and Hyperion, so that I could do some conversions for an Exiles team to use with the  SuperSystem  v3 rules. This group has been in the works for a while now. We actually played a game using unmodified 'clix several months ago, which is what gave me the idea to jump in on the conversions. The first figure I painted was Heather Hudson: Sasquatch. You've seen this one before but since she's part of the team, here she is again. The other two Exiles we used were Nocturne and Blink. Both of these clix are actually very nicely sculpted and painted. I rebased them on 30mm rounds, and didn't do any initial paint cleanup on Nocturne. I added some detailing t...

Any of my regular readers will know how much I like Strange Aeons . It has a lot of great things going for it: top looking models, low entry price, great game play and a local designer who has become a good friend. Over the past few years I've been invited to provide some small input on rules and scenarios, which has been a ton of fun and I'm very happy to have helped out with the game in some little way. The game has grown and evolved a lot, and reached the point where Uncle Mike's Worldwide  has made the decision to create a second edition of the game. The campaign has run rampant, making its initial funding goal in 28 minutes. That's an astonishing fact for a small publisher like Uncle Mike. It hasn't slowed down much since that initial blast. Last I checked they are on track to top 50k before campaign end. I could regale you with tales of heroism and woe that I've experienced playing the game, but you really just need to go check it out for yourself...

I was able to move two of my board games off of the 'never-played' list over the weekend! Most of the time when I'm trying to tackle items off of that list we'll only get through one new game in a session. First up I thought we'd play a horror-themed game since it is so close to Halloween: Herocard Nightmare . This is one of the six Herocard games that I own, and I think is the fourth of them that I've actually had a chance to play. Like the others, the core combat mechanic uses the Herocard duelling system, but the game wrapped around it is very different. I forgot to take a photo of this one, so enjoy the random pic of the components from the internet. In a nutshell, Nightmare is a deduction game. All of the players are trapped in a shared dream of scenes (cabin, forest, lake, etc...) and killers (beast, zombie...). Each player knows where they will die and who will kill them there. The challenge is to move the scenes around in order to figure out who is s...

When the flooding hit our city last summer, I was evacuated from my home. This meant I didn't have much of my hobby stuff with me while I was displaced. I did have enough time to pack up some clothes and my kitty and still have a few minutes to spare. I grabbed a few paints and my Orx team, knowing that I'd have a fair bit of time to fill while waiting for news about returning home. Being without all of my regular equipment meant either suffering with bad lighting and crappy brushes, or finding some new materials. A trip to Wal-Mart yielded a $17 alternative to my Ott lamp. My two brushes didn't survive the escape from home intact, so a stop at the Michael's next to the Wal-Mart and a 40% off coupon got me a set of nice (albeit synthetic) brushes for $5. Finally the nearby dollar store provided me with the one colour I forgot to bring: black. Some excellent interlocking plastic cups and some small paint trays rounded out my materials. I was ready to go; for about $25 ...

If you stop by here with any regularity you already know that I'm a big supporter of Mantic Games . It all started with Dreadball for me, but since that original Kickstarter campaign I've ended up supporting several others. One that I didn't pledge for was Mars Attacks! When Mantic released their plans to put out a game based on the Mars Attacks! license via Kickstarter, I wasn't all that interested. Not having been a fan of the trading card games or other related materials, my exposure to the license was solely the Tim Burton movie. I remember at the time that I really didn't like it, so I glanced at the campaign a few times, then let it pass. Shortly thereafter stuff from my way-larger-than-it-should-have-been Deadzone pledge started showing up and I pretty much forgot all about Mars Attacks. Fast forward a few months and images and videos for the game start popping up. I like what I'm seeing, and since I already own Deadzone, I start thinking th...

Just because I think crowd-funding is interesting, I thought it would be worth going through some of the many campaigns I've supported and give a brief run-down on where they're at. If you're not into Kickstarter or crowd-funded games, you can click here to read something else . Coming Soon: Age of Conan expansion - Starting tomorrow (October 9th, 2014). This one is really interesting in the sense that FFG has let the original designer/publishers have their remaining stock. The expansion should modify Conan's role within the game, although I don't know how or to what extent. Disappointingly this expansion won't add space for additional players to the game. Currently Running: Carnevale - An interesting one here in that it's both and expansion and a second edition in one campaign. I supported Vesper-On a few years ago and picked up the entire range at that time. I'm in for the new book and Strigoi (vampires!) faction, but it's doubtful I'...

I haven't had much time for hobby and gaming lately. Well, perhaps that's not true. It might be more of a case time and motivation not aligning for me. Our Dreadball league recently started up, but I've only played one game. Without a set schedule it's up to the players to arrange their own games. While I can understand why that is being tried, I'm unconvinced that it will work. I have a feeling that I'll have to be the one contacting other players in order to play the games I need to for the league, and in all likelihood most players won't finish this one. That'll be a shame, because the game really is a good one. I should have some photos of my team (The Keldorian Krushers) posted this week, as I'm almost finished them. I just have some highlighting and numbers to add and they'll be all finished. In an effort to cross some games off of my waiting-to-be-played list I invited a bunch of folks over yesterday. It was a short-notice invitatio...

While trying to clean up some of my draft entries I accidentally removed my recent Deadzone Marauders post. If you've been linked to it from somewhere else, I apologize. I don't have a backup copy of it; it's been lost forever. Ah well, I'll have to write something more interesting for you all next week.

Way back when I got started with Empire of the Dead  there was a free demo scenario available, which pit Jack the Ripper against Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I played that scenario a few times, albeit I'm ashamed to say, with black-primed miniatures. Since then quite a bit of time has passed, and West Wind Productions  Kickstarter campaign to expand the game has come and gone. Although these figures are technically from the Vampire Wars  range, they fit in nicely with EotD's setting and figures. They were part of a bundle deal with some bobbies, civilians and even a few victim markers. With these three figures finished I'm happy to say I've painted up everything except the victim markers. I don't care for them and might never both with them really. If you want to see the other bits you can click here to view my painted policemen and lycaons , and click here to view my painted Victorian Civilians . However, you're here to see characters, so here they are...

I've already done a Sasquatch figure, but really didn't like how the colours came out, nor was I really that happy with the sculpt itself. This newer Heroclix sculp is much more representative of the character. Extremely easy paint work as well. I painted some claws on with GW Bleached Bone, did a quick dry brushing over the fur with P3 Ember Orange and then washed the whole thing in GW Sepia. It's a little tough to see in the images, but I also did a light wash of red ink over the eyes. It adds a little something extra to the face I think. One of my friends is a big fan of the Exiles, and also provided me with the white version of Sasquatch. I figured it'd be a good start into making him an Exiles team for Supersystem . Again, a super easy paint job. This time I used Game Color Grey Wash over the entire figure, followed by a white dry-brushing. I used some gloss black to paint the claws and did a light dab of blue ink over the eyes. I'm not sure w...

September 3, 1924 From: Carl Selinger, Commanding Field Agent To: Director Silver, Calgary Field Office RE: Case File SA-140903-F Director, Our past few months in the field have finally borne some fruit. Our investigation into reports of strange occurrences near the village of Sundre led us to an abandoned shack near a quiet river crossing. As we approached we were set upon by zombies, seemingly commanded by an Egyptian mummy! Miss Moreaux's newly discovered psychic abilities proved useless against our undead foes. She, Agent Daniels and Agent MacIntyre were quickly swarmed by a human zombie and a pair of surprisingly fast zombie hounds. I've never seen the like of these before, and moved to their aid as quickly as my crippled body would allow. I was able to destroy the zombies, and then fend off the mummy long enough for our team to escape. Miss Moreaux escaped unscathed, and Daniels was fortunate enough to suffer only a minor arm wound. The unimaginable has h...

Over the long weekend we had a chance to try out my copy of Doom: The Board Game  for the first time. I picked it up at auction at last year's Fallcon  and now after having played it, it's really a shame that we hadn't played it sooner! I intended to start our gaming session with a game of 011 , but one of our players was running late and that game requires a minimum of three to play. So we decided to fire up Doom, since it seemed reasonable that a latecomer should be able to 'spawn in' at any time without causing any major problems. During the first few rounds we were getting to grips with the rules, all of the different tokens and how to read the map information as the invader player. It wasn't clear what everything was at first, but by the time the marine had opened up the third room we had it sorted. (We had missed a few tokens and retroactively gifted the marine with two weapons and some ammo.) Once our third player arrived we spawned him in at the...

Rather than posting multiple articles for each event I though I would consolidate them into a single article. Event 1 at Trilogy Games : - Bioship Alpha w/ Bioship Alpha Pilot and Energy Focusing Weapon - Romulan Science Vessel w/ Polarized Hull Plating - Romulan Scout Vessel w/ Donatra and Interphase Generator - Gavroche w/ Eddington and some other stuff We only had three players come for this event, including myself. I wanted to try out a build using Bioship Alpha and some smaller ships to see if I could make Energy Focusing Weapon work. It did and I was able to score 12 hits on a single attack. When time was called I had lost one small ship but lost out in terms of damage dealt. I didn't really care however, since I accomplished what I had wanted to do with EFW. Event 2 at Sentry Box : - Borg Tactical Cube w/ Tactical Drone 4 - Borg Sphere w/ Tactical Drone 6 - booster ship Other than the Soong (which I played as an Independent ship), I have not yet used a Borg ...

Ok I admit that comics have evolved their use of onomatopoeia well beyond the words in my title these days. They just don't read or flow as well though, which leads me to the above simple representations. Since they serve little purpose other than to get you to read my post however, let's just move on shall we? The first figure here is a Reaper Bones golem figure, painted up as the Hulk. I can't take credit for the paint work on this guy, as it was given to me by Uncle Mike (creator of Strange Aeons ). I touched up a few minor spots on the purple areas, based him to match my other super hero figures and called it done. Thanks Uncle Mike! I have another of these figures, which I am now tempted to paint up as a grey or red Hulk just for fun. It should be pretty easy to do, just a matter of when. Anyone who has read my blog for a while, or even likely in passing, will know that I am quite fond of Alpha Flight . There are quite a few nicely done Heroclix figures avail...