First Play of Power Legion

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 embroiled in. We were just getting into the swing of things, but sadly didn't get to finish the game because I had tix to the preseason Calgary Roughnecks game.

Seb thought the game might be a little too simple compared to SuperSystem but the verdict is still out in my opinion. I'd like to play a few more games and tweak the character profiles to learn how things interact a bit better before I decide. I will admit that I like the feel of it a touch more than SuperSystem in that building characters is a bit easier, while still maintaining largely the same comic book vibe.

I plan to create statistics for some of the other supers that I have and hope to get at least one more game in before end of the year.

Until then, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone!

Final Star Trek: Attack Wing Event of 2014

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 Federation lists, some Dominion and even a Romulan, Kazon, Klingon alliance thing going on. With an uneven number I didn't join in, as I'd rather have all the players get their three games in than have to sit out with a bye. It was also nice that I got complimented by the shop staff on how well we run our Attack Wing tournaments, which made me very happy to hear!

I did have a list prepared even though I wouldn't have been able to run it...as I needed an Elim Garak card from the Wave 10 Regent's Ship pack to complete it. The shop didn't have it in stock, so I would have needed to come up with a modification and hadn't brought any extra cards to do it with. That said, here's what I was planning to run.

TNG/DS9 Mirror Universe (100pts)

- ISS Defiant w/ Miles O'Brien & Rebellion, Elim Garak, Ezri Tigan and Quantum Torpedoes
- MU Galaxy Class w/ William T. Riker & We Won't Go Back, Jennifer Sisko, Multi-Targeting Phaser Banks and Dorsal Weapons Array
- Improved Shields

The list wasn't any kind of combo powerhouse or anything tricky, just a collection of stuff that looked like it would have a bit of punch and some level of staying power. Borg weren't allowed to play in this event unless you pulled one from the blind booster. I'll have to save this one for an upcoming event because I want to see if it will perform at all.

Seasons Beatings?!

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 him up last year. That didn't happen due to a scare for the family over Christmas...but this year, by George I wasn't going to be stopped in my work.

Now naturally Santa needs a helper. Magical gift-giving fellow he may be, but there are still a lot of holiday axes to grind. This brought me back to my newly received goodies. I hope Uncle Mike (or Santa) doesn't put me on the naughty list for showing my holiday rendition of this figure. I call him Ichor the elf.

The pictures aren't very good. That's what I get for taking them with my phone...but I hope you get the idea of what I was going for. Happy holiday gaming everyone!

2014 Year-End Kickstarter Roundup

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, which is a little surprising from Mantic Games. There were rumours of them doing a second KS campaign this month, but the fans seemed less than impressed with that idea since we've not yet received all of the stuff from this campaign. The third and final shipment is supposed to be in shipping stages now, but I'm not sure if I believe that.

Dragon Tides

No word on pledge manager availability yet, but the last update basically said "soon."

Dreadball Xtreme

I picked my first shipment up from the post office yesterday after work. Inside the shipping box I found the rule book, two sheets of decals, two bags of scenery and the MVPs. In the game box were two bags of players and all the rest of the stuff for the main game. I also received a second counter sheet for some reason.

I went through all the figures and at first thought I didn't get any convicts, but after looking through the rule book I realized that each bag in the box had all the player figures for the game inside. One of the Asterian strikers was missing an arm, but since there are two full sets in the box I'm not so concerned about it.

The rule book is probably the nicest looking one I've seen from Mantic so far, and I really like the cheat sheets at the back. I was a little disappointed that there was no roster pad, but then I remembered that it was an add-on during the campaign.

Dungeon Saga

No word on pledge manager availability yet. Since they just finished shipping out the first wave of DBX I don't expect to hear anything before the end of the year.

Dust Tactics: Operation Babylon

Ok this one is why I've labeled this post with the "rant" tag.

Simply put, the pledge manager and ensuing "process" for this campaign have been a giant mess. A few weeks ago I received email stating something was ‘wrong’ with my order, but didn't say anything about what or how it was wrong. So I had to send email asking for details...we weren't off to a good start.

After a few back and forth communications I was told that I couldn’t swap out free upgrade packs as I had done, to which I voiced my disagreement. The instruction video and one of the project updates both stated that I could do exactly as I had, and I was pretty sure that I'd filled out everything correctly. Even explaining myself to the guy felt like a challenge here.

I requested a refund if they were not able to fill my order as I'd entered it. Over a week passed before I finally sent a follow up query to find out what was going on. At that point I got three replies from two different people saying they'd made a mistake and that my order was indeed fine and they'd get working on shipping it out.

Fuck. Imagine how much pain is being felt by the people who DID have something with their orders. Unbelievable.

Fallen Frontiers: Reboot

I had looked at this game when they ran and then cancelled their first campaign earlier this year. I love the look of the models, but the pledge levels were pretty steep for what I want to get. Or so I thought. I ended up going in on this one and will probably add more cash via the pledge manager. If the models weren’t going to be resin I likely would have skipped it altogether based on the high cost.

Guardian Chronicles

I received my base game at the end of October and have tried the first scenario once solo. The game is just OK after a single run-through. The rule books are a total mess, which isn’t surprising based on the likelihood of it being directly translated from French. There is an English FAQ available, but it's less than stellar as well.

Despite me and several other backers requesting further information over on the campaign itself we still have radio silence from Iello as to WTF is going on with the follow-up waves. As previously I refuse to support them and won't be buying anything from them after suffering through this debacle.

Guild Ball

Delivery has been delayed until Q1 but generally the creators have been quite communicative. I'm kind of wondering if I’ll be able to get anyone into this if/when it finally shows up and get some models built.

Incursion

There have been a few more updates, mostly videos showing off some of the stuff to be delivered. It seems like the manufacturer is still dicking the creators around. If this one shows up it might be met with a pretty solid ‘meh’, as I’ve long since purchased a copy of the 1st edition of the game along with the metal miniatures. This one might get sold off unless it's head and shoulders above the original.

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game

At this point I think this is the longest campaign I've ever been involved with. I'm still waiting on my zombie bikers. I do seem to receive a little envelope of stuff every six months or so which is both nice and infuriating. Ironically, the "Block War" rulebook expansion the campaign was in support of in the first place was supplanted by a new rulebook over a year ago.

Kings of War 2nd Edition

I backed this for $150 and will likely take two starter armies to add to my Undead / Dwarf starter box and various models from Dwarf King's Hold games. I kinda don’t care about KoW, and wonder why I bothered to pledge. In the end I'll get more models I really don’t need and will likely never build. Whatever...

Lagoon: Land of Druids

Other than Sentinel Tactics, this is the only KS-funded game that I've backed that arrived on time. I have to say that it looks great! The artwork and pieces in this really are beautiful.

I've had a chance to play a two-player game. Quite the brain burner of a game. I realized about halfway in that I wanted to try to limit the amount of blue on the board. Sadly I realized this about two turns too late, as there was no longer enough red on the table to allow me to keep it in check. Pretty abstract and difficult (lots of thinking). Don’t play this one with your analysis paralysis-prone friends. Need a few more games to really form a true opinion.

Peachy Printer

Delivery for this is yet-again delayed; until spring 2015. I really wish I’d waited on this one because I think they have been using the funds to do development and research rather than producing a product that was ready to go. Unfortunately for me, I joined in via BackerKit, so I have to actively monitor the campaign, and have no voice on the KS page at all.

Rise of the Kage

The survey for this one was released pretty quickly and was quite smooth to go through. I added more items which cost a few more bucks, but will allow me to use pieces for this game in Bushido, giving me two new factions to play with. I wonder if this one will be even close to on time though.

Strange Aeons 2nd Edition

Uncle Mike's excellent game of Cthulhu-ian horror on the table top. The survey was made available this week and it was easily the Best Pledge Manager Ever.

Tablescapes

Poor Justin keeps running into more and more delays. It seems they didn’t order enough tiles to fill all the KS backer’s pledges, which could have been avoided with a little more project oversight. I still don't know if the shortage affected my order, because I have had zero direct communication about it. Since I haven't heard anything I'm guessing they haven't shipped anything to me yet. Sadness.

Want to Win Some Free Models?

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.

Three More UMW Figures for Strange Aeons

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. None of them have had character profiles made up, but I did start thinking of some names. So, here are my agents-in-waiting.

This figure always makes me think of John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Maybe the book he's carrying are his memoirs, or some tome of dark and lurid magic. Doyle Jones seemed like a good name for him.

This is another figure that totally makes me think of Dana Scully from X-Files. I already painted one of the other agent figures with red hair, so I opted for colours I don't often use here. Most notably the green for her jacket, which was a watered down Vallejo green. I liked the shiny finish on it as it looks sort of like a rain coat. Melinda Carson isn't related to anything, and I don't know anyone named even remotely close, but that's what I came up with for her.

This model sort of reminds me of the Hermann Heizinger figure from Tannhauser, even though they really look nothing alike. The face on this figure was a little roughly cast, but you can still tell that he's definitely an older gent, so I gave him a mustache too. I think he's supposed to be equipped with a civil war sabre but one could argue it's a family heirloom or something. I haven't thought up a name for this fellow just yet. If you have a suggestion drop it in the comments below!

First Impressions of Mordheim

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:

1. It's a fantasy skirmish game
2. 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...)
3. 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 the game are as follows:

• most undead (zombies!) are tremendously slow
• the undead have terrible ranged ability
• there are a lot of tables and modifiers to dice rolls, which for the most part still end up with you rolling one or maybe two dice at a time, and you generally need 4 or better
• the game itself feels pretty slow

Of course I have only played one game, so this isn't a review so much as a first impression. We went through the post-game stuff as though it was a campaign game, so I may be coerced/convinced to play a follow up.

In retrospect I sort of feel like you could get almost the same game experience using the Kulten rules from UMW, but of course you'd miss out on being able to play as rangers, elves, skaven and the like. If we play a few more games I might eventually write a full review. Or I might not.

Field Report: SA2-141125-MA

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 screaming amidst those writhing, ooze covered arms. Monique and I both lost our nerve a bit at this point and began retreating towards the safety of the church.

At the thought of leaving my men behind however I screwed up my courage. I believe Agent Moreau is partly responsible for my change of heart. I could feel her mind brush my own, lending me clarity as I reloaded my double-barrelled shotgun and turned to face the nightmare lumbering toward us. My first shot went astray, but the second...the second landed home. I can only term it luck, some might call it divine providence.

I'll take it regardless, as the beast collapsed and began to...deflate or rot, I'm not completely certain. It cast off a most revolting, noxious aroma. There was little left to investigate, but we managed to collect a small amount to bring back for study. I'm also happy to announce that all of the members of my team are well and accounted for, if a little worse for wear.

I recommend that we further investigate the parishioners of the area, as I doubt it is mere happenstance that we encountered this beast so near a church. A church can hide many secrets, as you well know director.

Carl Selinger
Commanding Field Agent

Exiles "Power Legion" Profiles

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
Entangle d6
Stretching d6

Nocturne (408 pts)
M: d4 A: d10 S: d4 K: d6

Clinging d6
Night Vision
Ranged Damage d6
Telepathy d6 (Limited Power: Only works within 1x Short)

Sasquatch (524 pts)
M: d8 A: d10 S: d12 K: d10

Armor d8 (Knockout +4)
Lethal HTH Attack d8
Superleap d8

Spider-Man 2099 (684 pts)
M: d8 A: d10 S: d10 K: d10

Acrobat
Clinging d12
Entangle d12
Night Vision
Poison d8
Swinglines d10

I haven't made a profile for Mimic, but there are few ways you could make him:

1. Start him off with all the powers you want him to have - He's often shown with claws, eye beams, armour and a few others.
2. Give him the ability to copy 5 different powers - this would be more accurate, but he'd have to spend most of the game running around trying to acquire powers in the game.
3. A mix of 1 and 2 - Maybe you give him the three powers in point 1, and allow him to absorb two other powers in game.

Exiles Repaints For "Power Legion"

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 to Blink and painted her skin a little lighter shade of pink. I know there is a newer Blink figure, but it's terrible compared to this one.

Of all the Exiles figures available Mimic and Morph are probably the worst sculpts. Mimic's proportions are not great, and the face sculpt is pretty weak. I decided not to mount him using a flight stand and drilled a hole in the base for the peg on his foot. I also had to cut off some mould lines, and repaint before shading and highlighting.

Morph's biggest issues are his extended leg (it's way too long), and the fact that his foot peg makes him point straight up. To make him more forward-facing I created some rubble on a base and glued him to that. He got the same mould line removal as Mimic before I touched up the paint work.

I was a little torn on which Hyperion figure to use, but after William provided me with his extra King Hyperion I was sold. The older figure sculpt looks a little too Superman-like and fits nicely into the Squadron Supreme era, whereas this one is accurate to the Exiles series. I chopped down the clear plastic representing his flight so that he didn't tower over everyone else. A few minor touch-ups and he was done.

Lastly is one of my favourite clix sculpts ever: Spider-Man 2099 from the Fantastic Forces set. The whole set was great, but this figure is particularly awesome. His base is great and the paint work needed almost no work. After I removed him from the clix base I built up a little rubble so that he could also face more forward than down. I touched up the red and then put a coat of varnish over everything except the webbing. Like the rest of the figures, I did some highlights on the dark blue after the varnish coat.

When I started working on these figures it was with the intent of using them for SuperSystem, which I might still do. However, I recently bought the new Power Legion rule book from Ganesha Games, and am very excited to try it out. I've started putting together some Exiles profiles, and will have to come up with a scenario to play. Maybe I can try something lopsided and have a bunch of them face off against a high powered King Hyperion!

Until then here's the whole team.

Strange Aeons 2nd Edition Kickstarter - Final Days

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. The campaign is wrapping up on Sunday, November 2nd. Get in before the madness leaves you behind!

Strange Aeons - 2nd Edition Kickstarter Campaign

Another Sunday of Board Gaming

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 scared of which combination without giving your own away. Once you have learned (or think you have) what combination another dreamer is afraid of, you can try to kill them there. If you do they're out. The goal is to be the only dreamer still alive.

So this one has a very unique theme and the board is cool. The pieces are good and during the game the scenes and killers are removed to make it more and more likely you can find a killing combination. Being our first play through of course we made some mistakes, but I quite enjoyed the unique idea. It is certainly not for everyone however, because it is a very dark theme, even it if's not particularly bloody or horrific. Although it's a fast game, there is player elimination so that is something to keep in mind as well.

I'll be keeping this one to try a few more times, hopefully with a full four-player complement.

Our second game was one I've been wanting to play ever since I picked it up: Sons of Anarchy - Men of Mayhem. Being a 3 or 4 player game only, it's proven a little tough to manage. People just seem to flake out at the last minute or not bother answering invitations. It's actually quite frustrating, but that's a discussion for another day.

We got things set up pretty quickly for our three gangs and jumped right in. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. The game plays very quickly and each gang has different strengths and weaknesses. There were a few throw downs, opportunities were taken and hassles arose, some members died, took the fall and generally did bad things in the name of making cold, hard cash.

There are tons of location tiles and anarchy cards in this game. Since you only use a limited number of each in a game, I can see a ton of replay-ability in this game. We had to call the game after five rounds instead of six, and my Mayans fell three cash short of the Grim Bastards for the win. I'm really looking forward to playing it again!

Sidebar: two of the cast members from the show were at the Calgary Tattoo expo this weekend, but I was sadly not able to make it. I would have loved to take my copy of the game down for them to sign!

One of our players had to leave at this point, so we decided to try out a skirmish between heroic duos in Sentinel Tactics. I used Tachyon and Absolute Zero against Bunker and Visionary. It was getting late so we decided that once a character was incapacitated for the second time they were out of the game. I lost Tachyon first to a massive 10-dice strike from Bunker, shortly after she took Visionary down for the first time. Absolute Zero had to chose between chasing Visionary and her decoy around or taking Bunker down. He chose Bunker, and died.

It was a tough game and I know we weren't playing the skirmish rules the right way. I believe it's supposed to be 3-on-3 an the first to three incapacitations. Either way it was still fun.

I will be rebasing the minis on 30mm rounds at some point, because I really don't like the clear hex bases. Other than that I'm pretty happy with the game so far. It will certainly see more play in the future too.

Painting Dreadball - The Keldorian Krushers

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 I basically had created an emergency painting setup.

I didn't get them all painted up during the evacuation; only finishing them recently. A year to paint 12 figures isn't so bad, right? Right? Actually all of the work I did last summer ended up getting painted over. I had primed those figures black, then painted the skin green and done some of the straps in brown. After looking back at my Skeletor model, I decided to paint the Orx with blue skin to match instead.

When my season 3 shipment arrived I got a few more figures to add to my team. In retrospect I'm actually glad that I hadn't painted them yet. Of the Orx figures I had, I selected 3 guards and 5 jacks, then added one more of each, as well as the keeper figure and prone goblin marker. I also decided to paint Slippery Joe up to fit in with the team, since he'll only play for Orx/Goblin teams anyway. That gave me a total of 13 figures to do.

I'm not sure when I actually primed the second batch of models, but for some reason they were done with white primer. That did make painting the blue skin (AP Crystal Blue) a lot easier. Painting over the green that I'd done originally took me three or four light coats to really get full coverage.

The purple is an approximate 2:3 mix of GW Liche Purple and GW Fortress Grey. The metals are GW Boltgun, and the dark grey is P3 Greatcoat Grey. I also used some GW Mechrite Red for the tongues, and some GW Bleached Bone for the teeth. The straps were done with GW Brown. The whole paint job was followed by a liberal wash of GW Badab Black.

After the wash had dried I did some highlighting. The skin got a layer of AP Crystal Blue, and then a highlight of AP Electric Blue. The purple also got a coat of the base colour over top, as did the leather strapping. The loin clothes I highlighted with P3 Ironhull Grey. Finally the numbers were painted on with red followed by white over top. This is the first team I've tried to freehand numbers on, and I think they turned out alright. I doubt I'd try it again when I have perfectly good number transfers to use however.

The Keldorian Krushers have already played one game (embarrassingly as a mix of white and black-primed models) in which they were able to score only a single strike. It happened to be in the 13th rush and was worth a game-winning 3 points so I guess I shan't complain too much just yet.

Coach Skeletor is pleased with his new minions...

Beware the Arrival of "Mars Attacks!"

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 that I should check this game out. Long story short I ended up ordering the pre-order bundle directly from Mantic, which shipped about 10 days ago and landed (literally) on my doorstep yesterday.

I had a chance to crack the two boxes open and check it all out. The figures look surprisingly good for the material they're using and I'm sure they can be painted up quite nicely. I spent a bit time putting together the scenery from the base box and ended up with a pretty decent table layout (shown below). Ironically, with all the scenery I have for Deadzone, I've never actually built anything...I had this stuff for less than 4 hours before I needed to put it on the table.

The models and the scenery pieces will need some scraping to remove mould lines and some burrs. Additionally, some of them are bent over pretty badly and will require the hot-cold water treatment to sort out. I also wish that there some more intact wall pieces, as the amount of rubble provided really doesn't work in my mind with how much damage you're actually seeing on the walls. All that said however I was impressed with the package.

This one might actually jump up in my painting queue pretty quickly. Those martians need painted so that I can attach their cool little helmet domes! In retrospect I do wish I'd backed the campaign, because I could have gotten a LOT more cool stuff for the money I spent on this set. Ah well, can't win 'em all...

Kickstarter Madness!

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'll add much more. I may even lower my pledge, but haven't decided yet. The exchange rate to GBP and shipping from the UK really makes it tough to cough up the cash, especially since I have experience building these figures already, and they can be very frustrating. This game is definitely worth a look though, because the setting is genius and the game is a lot of fun.

Strange Aeons 2nd Edition - This one is close to my heart as it's developed by a local game designer and friend, Uncle Mike. I've helped with the play testing on this edition and between the updated rules and new models...there's absolutely no reason anyone with even a passing interest in Lovecraftian horror should pass this up. Go pledge right now!

Recently Finished:

Dungeon Saga - Essentially Dwarf King's Hold 2.0. I really wasn't going to pledge on this one, and sort of regret doing so, as I have all of the existing DKH products. That game is pretty decent and I probably don't need any more dungeon-crawling madness. It's not a genre I'm super enamoured with, but I have a few friends who quite like it and it's by Mantic. I love all the stuff I have from them thus far and I'm sure this one will be worth the pledge in the end too.

Rise of the Kage - This one took me some time to decide on. I have two starter sets for GCT Studio's other game Bushido. I really love the models, but have held off on buying more from the Bushido line due to the high prices, plus shipping...not to mention the conversion from GBP to Canadian dollars. I liked the look of the board game, and with a small add-on for a few extra cards, I essentially get more stuff for Bushido as well. You really can't beat that.

Not Yet Delivered:

Dreadball Xtreme - This one is slated to be delivered some time in November of 2014. Due to things being pretty quiet from Mantic, I have a feeling they might be a little behind schedule. In all honesty, I'm not really worried about any delay. I'm only now finishing up the paint work on my Orx team (my fifth completed team) and I have another eight to do. There another ton of figures coming for this campaign as well.

DUST Tactics: Operation Babylon - I went in big on this game and I'll admit now that I rather regret having done so. I picked up some of the FFG-released items and, while it is very nice looking, I'm not sold on the game play. That said however, the Battlefield rules that are in the new book look like they might cover off the sort of game I'm looking for. Storing all of THIS stuff is going to be quite the nightmare...rather like their mess of a pledge manager.

Guardians Chronicles - If this ever shows up I'll be surprised. Delivery of this game is almost 15 months late. Communications to backers has been brutal. Not only would I never support another IELLO-run KS, I will never buy another game from them again. Ever.

Guild Ball - I backed this one after seeing a demo game play video on Beasts of War. We printed out the paper dolls and preview rules that were available during the campaign and played a few games. I liked the idea of a miniature sports game that used skirmish war game rules instead of a discreet board. The minis were rather pricey, but I'm hoping they'll be usable in other fantasy-style games or RPGs. It actually sounds like this campaign will be on time for December delivery!

Incursion - Another one that's well past their delivery date. It does sound like they've been dicked around by their manufacturing partners, but again the communication on this one has been shit: once a month, if we're lucky. I picked up a first edition copy of the game with painted miniatures a few months ago and it's good enough that I don't know whether or not I'll keep my 2nd edition when (if) it finally arrives.

Lagoon: Land of Druids - This one I backed on a whim. The price of the game was fairly low and the art and components looked stunning. Whether or not the game will be any good, or something I'll play often remains to be seen. Production and communication on this one have seemed very solid thus far, and shipping is slated to begin any day now.

Peachy 3D Printer - This is the only non-gaming campaign I've ever funded. I actually joined via the pledge manager, which means I don't get the emailed updates directly, so I have to keep an eye on this one myself. They've run into several technology snags with this project which translates into delivery delays. However, the transparency on the KS updates is very high and the product looks very promising.

Secret Weapon Tablescapes - I keep forgetting that I pledged for two sets of tiles from Secret Weapon. Justin has done a great job keeping the backers informed and I believe they're actually ahead of schedule on this one. Shipping has either already started or will do so soon. More stuff to paint and store...like I don't have enough of that already. On the other hand, these things look very versatile and the painted samples we've seen are excellent!

Incomplete Delivery:

Acthung! Cthulhu - I picked up a few of their miniatures to use with Strange Aeons, and all of the books in PDF. I have to admit that I've only skimmed most of them, and am unlikely to play the RPG. It's not that I wouldn't like to, as I think the mixing of WW2 and Cthulhu is a great spot for role-playing. It's more that it's nigh impossible to get together a group to play RPGs, let alone a multi-session campaign style game that I think A!C would require. I think I'm just waiting on the final edits of the last two books to be available. They've been pretty quick about delivery and the communication was solid.

Deadzone - I pledged for way too much stuff on this one and haven't even played the game. There were a few items missing from my second shipment, but after contacting Mantic the replacements were dispatched to me in short order. It is frustrating that some of the base game Enforcer figures are still delayed and that I'm waiting on those to really have a solid Enforcer faction, but in reality I can't complain. There are a ton of great figures already in my possession and there's not reason I can't play the game now. And man-oh-man the new sci-fi zombies that just arrived look splendid...

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - Ugh, this one is still not finished. I'm waiting on some zombie bikers from Mongoose, which to-date I don't even think are sculpted. The "Block War" expansion book that the campaign was originally for has since been rolled into a new edition rule book that you have to pay for and I don't have. I've got my copy of all the free rules and I'll stick with that. The likelihood of me really getting around to more than a few dozen of these figures in the next decade is low. They're nice and hopefully the zombies will show up some day. Until then, it's nice when another small bag of models lands in the mailbox. I just keep adding it to the rest of baggies of metal I have.

Sentinel Tactics - This campaign delivered early. That's right I said it; EARLY. Unheard of really. Even though I didn't like the last expansion to the SotM card game I wanted to support this game. As you might have guessed, I love miniature games, superheroes and board games. This looked to combine all of those things together. Backers are still waiting on some of the painted items (which I didn't pledge for) and some of the stretch rewards like extra maps. I've only played once but it was fun and I'm glad I picked it up.

Board Games and Lantern Clix

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 invitation. Things were looking good for a 3 or 4-player turnout, but once again it ended up being just William and I. That meant a few things like Sons of Anarchy wouldn't make it to the table.

All was not lost however, as we did make our way through two of my newer games: Firefly the Game, and Sentinel Tactics.

We set up Firefly and cranked through the rules during the game. There were a few things we had to dig around the book for, but overall it went pretty smoothly. We played the "First time in the captain's chair" mission, which is recommended for new players. I have both expansions for the game and have mixed them all in, but we ignored any of the piracy or showdown cards for the sake of not messing with each other.

I neglected to take any photos, so you'll have to enjoy this random shot I pulled from the internet...

Our game lasted a little under two hours. We both started out doing a few legal jobs to get solid with Amnon Duul and Harken, then tried our hand at some illegal work requiring some misbehaving. William's job was harder, requiring him to complete three cards. He swam through that easily, but ended up getting hit by Reavers on his way to drop off his fugitives. I only had to misbehave once to pick up my contraband, but I had to try three times, losing a crew member each of the first two attempts.

Once I had my contraband I was able to make a quick delivery for a nice pile of cash and nab my second goal marker. I was only one space away from Ezra after that and moseyed over to win the game.

I definitely enjoyed it and am looking forward to playing through it again soon. It captures the feeling of the show very nicely and is a pretty fun game on top of all that.

Next up was Sentinel Tactics: The Flame of Freedom. Again, I hadn't read the rules ahead of time, so we learned as we played. Even though we made a few mistakes and had a few questions, the game played quite quickly. The basics are simple to learn, but I can see the learning curve being fairly high for new players, or players using unfamiliar characters for the first time.

The components are nice, and we were using the miniatures instead of the tokens for the characters. While not great, I think painted up and based (I'll be using 30mm round bases for most figures) they'll really look good.Who knows when I'll actually tackle that painting project...

William had also picked up some Heroclix stuff for me. I'm a big fan of Green Lantern, so he supplied me with the War of the Light scenario pack and all of the various lantern packs. While I haven't played clix in years, I'll have to track down the maps listed in the scenario packs so that I can give them a go. I've already collected up all the figures I have for each of the myriad Corps., so I can start repainting and/or converting them to my liking.

Oops, Deleted Article Mishap

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.

Empire of the Dead - Last of the Demo Scenario Figures

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:

For Jack I didn't use any reference to help me choose colours, I just started picking pots from my selection and had at it. It seemed pretty obvious to me that his cloak should be black and his mask should be red. After base colours had been applied I put on a liberal coat of Army Painter Soft Tone varnish. Some matte varnish and a re-application of the base colours as a highlight and he was all sorted.

Holmes and Watson were done in the same day, shortly after I had finished the base colours for Jack. I used the poster of the first Downey/Law movie as a reference for Watson's suit. After the varnish it was really dirty looking, so I applied a watered-down coat of the original colour back over the top. It turned out brighter than I'd have liked, and in retrospect I should have used a grey wash on the suit and a sepia on the rest instead. I really should fix that lantern too...it doesn't look right.

For Holmes, I went with darker colours than Watson. The red vest was just to give him a little dash of colour. Looking at them now he's pretty similar to Jack, but oh well. They're done.

I'm hoping to get a few demo games played in the next little while, to see if I can drum up some interest in EotD again. If only I could finish that nosferatu starter box...

Sasquatches. Sasquatchii?

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 which Exiles I'll tackle next. There are quite a few Heroclix available to choose from. I'll have to dig a bunch of them up and see which ones make me want to work on them. As a parting piece, here are both of my Sasquatches together.

Field Report: SA2-140903-F

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 happened however sir, my trusted lieutenant of three years, Agent Loamy MacIntyre, has died.

His wounds at the hands of these zombies were simply too great for us to attend to without the aid of a qualified surgeon. Even had we gotten him back to the village I doubt the local doctor would have been able to do more than ease his pain before passing.

I shall miss my friend, and I swear to avenge his death at the hands of these infernal monsters!

Carl Selinger
Commanding Field Agent

Prepare to meet your Doom!

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 starting area, dumped the tokens that he would have spawned during the game in their appropriate places and kept on going. It worked very well looking back on it.

By the time the marines had obtained the red keycard and explored the hidden locker time was running low. I'd scored five frags against them and needed only one more to win the game. Drawing through the last card of the invader deck would grant me a frag, and both marines were just out of sprinting range of the red door in the time they had left.

It turned out to be a very fun game and I'd really like to play it again soon. The components and rule books look quite daunting, but inside that box is a quite simple and engaging game. If only the expansion wasn't so hard to find these days...

"The Collective" OP2 in Review

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 ship in OP. While Sentry Box allows fully mixed fleet builds I wanted to see how much damage I could lay out using bare-bones Borg ships. Even with the minimal lists I figured that I'd be able to last a decent amount of time in scenario 2. Of course any Borg ship with an ablative armour on it will beat me in a matchup.

Event 2 at Imaginary Wars:

- Vor'cha class w/ Martok 8
- K'Tinga class w/ Gowron
- B'Rel class w/ K'Nera
- IKS Somraw w/ Klingon Captain

Imaginary Wars is the only place using modified rules, enforcing ship purity, building to 100pts instead of 90, and not using the booster ship in the build. This fleet is similar to several Klingon variations I've used or played against in the past.

We modified the rules at IW to play 45-minute rounds, and allowed the players to attack each other after each had done at least 25 damage to the cube. It didn't really change my impression of the scenario, but since I wasn't playing to win it did let me have some fun making my opponents sweat a little bit when I turned from the cube to lock my sights on their ships.

Final Thoughts on "The Collective OP2"

I didn't really enjoy this scenario. The cube doesn't do anything, and not attacking or really interacting with my opponent at all just didn't feel like a satisfying game experience. I understand it from a thematic standpoint, but it just didn't translate well into a fun scenario. Additionally, the USS Raven prize ship was really not an exciting addition to the game. I don't imagine these being sought after items at all.

I did like the Fleet Captain resources cards and think OP3 will prove to be much more interesting (although it feels nigh-impossible to win). Bring on the USS Stargazer and Assimilation Target Prime!

BAM! POW! ZAP! More Superhero Figures...

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 available, which I've slowly been repainting and re-basing for use in SuperSystem. I've got three more to add here.

Box - Almost a complete repaint. I cut off the mould lines, recoated all of the red areas and applied some blacks and greys around the figure to add interest. I used some P3 Armour Wash on the metallic areas and then applied a GW Mithril Silver as a highlight. Finally I repainted the yellow visor.

Wild Child - Not one of my favourite characters, but useful as an analog to Wolverine. This figure has a pretty good sculpt and pose, but the face is certainly lacking in details. I didn't bother to strip the paint from this one, although I did consider it. I repainted the black, purple and flesh and followed it up with some GW Leviathan Purple and P3 Flesh washes. The paint on the hair is pretty thick, but I added some detail as best I could. Turned out pretty well I think. I had trouble getting a decent photo of this guy.

The final figure I has in mind was Northstar to add to my Alpha Flight roster. I'd already done an Aurora and was very happy with her. While the figure WizKids had done of Northstar mirrored Aurora's pose, he was done in the red and white costume rather than the original black and white. I decided this would be a good time to try stripping the paint from a clix and see how it turned out.

I was quite surprised at how much actual detail there was on the figure after I'd removed the paint. The disappointment with this figure was two-fold. 1) When I tried to cut some of the mould lines off, the rubbery material simply shredded, and, 2) there was some sculpted detail in his costume that I wouldn't be able to remove like I'd planned.

The band on his upper left arm reminded me of the gestapo troopers I'd painted some time ago, and so I ended up with this:

Zyklon - This guy will be another member of the Crime Syndicate alongside Kriegshunde and The Mist from the SuperFigs line. I think it turned out pretty well. The downside to this conversion is that I still have to find a figure to use as Northstar. In my first pass through the paint work, I actually painted a white circle and the symbol that goes inside it on the arm band, but although very striking, I ultimately felt to be in very poor taste. So I painted over that and decided to try the cross on his chest instead. I think it looks much better, gives focus to the figure and will prove far less distasteful to anyone who happens to see this guy in my collection.