Thinking Outside the Box

Welcome back for more insanity from the world of Pulp City ! This time it's a pair of villains from the Necroplane. When I received these figures Night Fright's board was glued down flat to an untextured base; not exactly an inspiring presentation for such a great looking figure. I wanted to make him look like he was flying, which meant removing "Leech" from his super-glue prison without damaging him and finding the right base to achieve the effect. I chose one of the resin bases I had in my bits box. I'm actually not sure who made it, but there are a few casting errors and bubbles on it if you look really closely. They're of little notice now that it's all finished. The angle of the wreckage on the one side had enough surface area that I thought I'd be able to glue part of the board down to it. I drilled a hole in the base, another hole completely through the board, and finally a small one into Night Fright's foot. With some luck my plan wo...

I just realized that I haven't been posting my match reports for the CDBL season 2 games played by my Keldoran Krushers . I'll make sure to provide some pictures for the next one, but in the meantime here's the round 4 match report: Monsters vs. Monkeys The Krushers hosted the Dread Monkeys in an early Sunday game. The Zee team was firmly the underdog and used their substantial bonus to hire a Nameless guard and Nightshade to help their efforts. The Krushers struck first, scoring a 2 point strike in the 5th rush.  In the 8th, Nightshade snatched up a loose ball and landed a 3-point strike in response. The fans at Krusher Kolliseum watched in stoic silence. Apparently the Dread Monkey fans all elected to stay at home for this one... The cheeky little monkeys attempted to swarm the pitch several times, but the ever-vigilant refbot caught them red-handed every time. Test Subjects 3, 5 and 8 were all ejected from the game. A last-ditch play in the 13th rush by Krusher...

Now is a great time to get started with the Batman Miniatures Game  by Knight Models . It is however, also a confusing time. The newly updated (and great looking) printed rule book has recently been released and folks all over the place are getting excited about the game. That means people are looking at the rule book vs. the free PDF rules available for download and starting to ask questions about which rules to start with. Can I learn the game using the free rule book? Yes you can. You'll get a feel for the flow of the game and its mechanics, but be prepared to deal with changes if you are going to buy the new book. If you plan to play in a small group with a few friends, there's nothing wrong with just using the free rules...but a few things will be missing so it could become increasingly challenging over time. I intend to buy the rule book, should I start with the free rules? This is how another local player and I got started, playing 3 or 4 games with the free r...

One of Bythtron’s friends joined us for a game Sunday past. I forgot to bring my new rule book with me, and Bythtron hasn’t yet received his, so we played with the free downloadable rules again. We opted to skip out on scenarios, objectives, extra equipment and strategies in order to help keep things simple. Our game was played at 200 rep. Batman crew - Arkham City Batman - Arkham City Robin Joker crew - Arkham City Joker - Arkham City Harley Quinn - clown w/ knife - clown w/ bat Bane crew - Arkham Origins Bane - Smash - McGregor - Dallas - Blackgate w/ Pipe The first turn was essentially everyone moving toward the centre of the table. I don’t think at this point any of us had a firm strategy in mind. With three players there were a lot more sewers and lampposts on the table, making it challenging for my stealthy heroes to move unseen. Joker had moved up into the light of a lamppost, making himself a prime target for Batman’s batarangs. The first attempt failed, bu...

As mentioned previously the first Batman Miniature Game items I decided to paint are not character figures. I wanted to start with these so that I could examine the casting quality without being concerned about messing up one of the expensive character models. It was also my thought that once I started painting characters I wouldn't want to go back and paint more mundane stuff like objective markers. The objective markers all come as a single pack complete with bases. The sculpting and casting quality are not as good as I was expecting, having heard most folks rave about the actual characters from Knight Models . Let's get into each marker in a bit more detail! The loot marker is probably the best cast of the bunch. The detail of the bag is complete with some stacks of cash, jewelry and gold coins spilling out. There was a mould line around the edges but wasn't obscuring any of the content or fine detail and was easy to file off. There was a small pit lacking metal i...

Like many of you out there, I recently received my printed copy of the new Batman Miniature Game  rule book. I've also bought some figures and have been toying around with crew lists at a few different point levels. This brought me to wondering what the desirable number of points are for playing the game. After asking on the forums the general consensus among experienced players seems to be something like this: 150 rep: For introductory games. 200 rep: Good for faster, focused games. 300 rep: Rule book recommended game size. 350 rep: Tournament game size, although some feel it gives too much cash/free agent leeway. 450 rep: Suggested in the new rules as a big game. I’d be cautious of playing a game this size because it feels like it would take an entire afternoon or longer to play. I’ve only played three games so far, all using the free rules. The first game was played at 200 rep with no scenarios or extra rules. It felt a little bit too big. Even with only four or five ch...

Last week I received two packages of stuff for the Batman Miniature Game . The first package ordered was actually the second to arrive. I already talked about these items a few weeks ago. For those not in the know, the VAT (value added tax) is a whopping 21% on orders direct from Knight Models . That makes the purchase price for these figures very high after factoring in the exchange from CAD to Euros. If you order enough stuff you don't have to pay shipping, but it's still a kick in the wallet for those folks on a limited budget. (I promise this will be the last time I grouse about the price. The products are good, so now it's up to you to decide whether they're worth the cost or not.) When my package arrived I was rather deflated to find that the exclusive Red Hood Joker figure was not included with my pre-order. I sent an email to KM's customer service email and received a reply within twelve hours, apologizing for the mistake and promising to send out the m...