Thinking Outside the Box

Well over a year ago I spent a little time trying to figure out the point formula for the Batman Miniatures Game . I had come up with a pretty close approximation and tried my hand at a few custom character profiles. I've only ever play-tested one of those, but in the three games we used it, the profile seemed pretty balanced. So I took what I learned and a few months later I came up with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  crew list! I built this crew to be as versatile as possible, but unless I went the route of the Watchmen, I still had to stick within the established rank format. The profiles are just text; I never bothered to create proper card graphics to use. With the just-released 2nd Edition rules for the game, I might try my hand at creating some new format character cards for them. If anyone does give them a try I'd love to hear your experience, thoughts and feedback. April O’Neil (TMNT) Henchman WP 4, STR 5+, MV 3, ATK 2, DEF 3, END 4, SPL 3 Informer, Run...

Lots of "Real Life" stuff going on the past few weeks. I did run a demo day for the  Batman Miniatures Game  a little over a week ago at Imaginary Wars . Lots of people showed up to check out models, ask questions about building their crew, learn the game and sign up for the upcoming escalation league I'll be running. It was great to see so many folks come out and express their interest in the game! There is still time to register, so if you're interested please click here for all the details about the league . Our first league night will be Monday April 4th! Other than that I haven't done much in the way of hobby or gaming. I picked up a copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse: Villains of the Multiverse , and backed their campaign for the final expansion "Oblivaeon" on Kickstarter. Today the pledge manager showed up for IDW's campaign for their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles board game, so I'll be filling that out shortly. The semi-finals gam...

I spent a quiet Remembrance Day at home and observed a few moments of silence being thankful for the freedoms I enjoy, not to mention that I wouldn't exist if my grandparents hadn't been brave, brave folks. The freedom I enjoyed on my day off was a relaxing breakfast with my girl and then a day of hobby time and conversation with a friend. I didn't get anything painted but it was a highly productive day in my opinion. First up was a large batch of cultists from Pulp Figures  for more games of Strange Aeons . These guys have been languishing in a box for a long while, and I figured it was high time they got some attention. I did some quick hand swaps and have four more dudes to add to my serpent man cult that I showed off years back . There were another eleven cultists from the same order and decided to put those all together as well. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do with these, but I'll keep that to myself for now. There is a Black Sun operative...

Yesterday we played our first game of A Fistful of Kung Fu  by Andrea Sfiligoi, creator of A Song of Blades and Heroes . Unlike most of his Andrea's previous games based on the SOBH engine, this one was not published by Ganesha Games . It has several subtle differences that add up to make it quite a different game than the few I've played before. Our game was played at 300 points, using a trio of my ninja turtles against Shredder and some of his Foot clan ninja. The turtles were all pointed up as protagonists in an attempt to see if it would work. The rules intend that a list only has one protagonist, one bruiser and any number of extras. The main benefit of a protagonist is the ability to react to failed activation rolls. With more than one protagonist on my turtle list, even though they were heavily outnumbered, they were able to react with deadly intent several times during my opponent's turn. The game was fun, and it was a good learning opportunity, but I will defin...

After I'd painted my TMNT figures I knew I would need a Casey Jones and April O'Neil some day. Thinking of Casey my mind pulled this miniature out of the cobwebs of memory. If I was going to paint one figure from the box, I might as well do the whole set. After I glued him to the base I did a quick size comparison and was a little disappointed that he's quite small; about the same size as Splinter. The turtles tower over him quite a bit. I briefly considered rebasing him on a base topper to match the ones on the turtles, but it would have meant doing all three figures from the box, or just the one and have his base not match the rest of the set. It also might have been pretty difficult gluing him down with just the one heel as a contact point. Maybe trying to pin it would work, but I don't think I have a small enough drill bit to do it. In the end I opted to leave him as he was. For a brief moment I did try to think of how I might create a golf bag for him to car...

I have to start off by saying that this might be the nerdiest post I've written to date, and that's sayin' something! The amount of fun I've had working on these, and thinking about what kind of games or scenarios I could play with them has been pretty ridiculous. I'll admit that I fully intended to have these completed before end of the year...that obviously didn't happen. There are a few options out there for figures, but they are either the wrong scale, too damned expensive of just don't capture the feel I was looking for; and then I found this! The TMNT Foot Clan Street Fight  board game was on sale for $12. After I liberated the figures out of the copy I bought, I made some cardboard standees so that I could still play the game with my nephews. It was a big hit during our Christmas holiday too! Now about those figures...on the down side the plastic is pretty soft. The paint work is passable for a mass produced product, but (accurate to the cur...

In the last year I have picked up a few items from the SuperFigs line from a local shop. They're inexpensive, generally characterful sculpts and overall quite easy to paint. There are two packs of ninja figures out there, but I was only able to find one locally. Being a child of the 80s I immediately wanted to make warriors from the Foot clan (that's from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for those not in the know) out of them! As I've mentioned about some other figures, the sculpting isn't great, especially in the hands. However the detail is pronounced enough that it makes the models very easy to paint. They are also all one-piece sculpts which means no construction. I like figures that I don't have to put together! The paint colours: - 2:1 mix of GW Codex Grey and black for the clothes - GW Elf Flesh for all of the skin - Codex Grey for the handles of the weapons - GW Fortress Grey for the undergarment sticking out of the jacket - 1:3 mix of Liche Pu...