More Conan sword fodder

Here are some of the more civilized opponents for Conan's sword to subjugate; five guards and a captain. Might do some characters next.

What lies beneath

Decided to do some quick postings to keep my interest in the the blog going. Here's some tentacles I've just finished from the Conan boardgame.

Doesn't time fly...

Doesn't time fly. I have been engrossed in a few new deliveries lately which seems to have eaten my time. I have been keeping up with some communication on Twitter. It's been so long that when I came to post this, my app, Blogsy, no longer worked! The main target of my gaming affections has been the boardgame Conan from Monolith designs. Put simply, lots of painting and playing where posssible. Here are some piccies...  

 

 

 

 

 

Scratchbuilt dungeon scenery

Through sorting out the piles of 'stuff' in the wargames shed, I decided to dispose of some boardgames that o didn't want, and wouldn't have any resale value. After rummaging through the the contents, I found some playing pieces which I thought could form some part of statues or something. At the same time we were getting rid of some of Wills' baby toys, including some play blocks. After some gluing, heavy paints and some weathering, here are the results...

I'm really quite happy with the results. I feel they will fit in nicely with my Super Dungeon Explore stuff, or Open Combat. Got a couple more bits to finish.

 

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A different kind of farm creature

The peace didn't last long! Three players (Daz, Ed and Phil). Three seperate foraging parties; cops, SWAT and gang members. The peaceful farm was about to erupt into a cacophony of gunshots and low, steady groans.

The action started tentively, with each party reaching towards the centre of the farm. The cops took a steady, quiet approach to one of the outlying homes, quietly and carefully disparching the zombies that they met. After considered entry into the house, they found...very little.

The SWAT team, aware of tactical discipline, stealthy moved past the barn to watch the activity around the main farmhouse. Having seen the shamblers become slightly agitated, and move towards the other side of the house.

Gunfire erupted, zombies reacted, more zombies stumbled into the farm. Now acutely aware of their situation, the SWAT fell back to the barn. Due to the increasing pressure of the chaos near the farmhouse, the team opened up!

Unfortunately the raucous bellows of 12 bore, pump action force drew more attention. The team finish with a clearance of the barn which they passed on their way in.

The tact and guile shown by the previous two teams was certainly not the approach of the gang members...their assured, arrogant attitude was displayed by moving straight towards the main farmhouse, guns blazing.

On house entry, zombies poured forth that even the hoods could not handle confidently. Forced out to the porch area, guns continued to blaze, attracting even more deadly attention. The game ended with the gang fighting for their lives...

The ATZ formula worked well as a gaming system. The simple foraging scenario showed that the game provides a great 'sandbox' experience which can be shaped well by the imagination of the scenario designer.

 

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The beauty of hexes

A friend is over from his Itslian home visiting family and folk, and luckily, he can spend a whole day for gaming! In deciding what to do. I thought about a light hearted evening game - so zombie apocalypse it is! (Not so light hearted, maybe)

I've been thinking of just taking a straight port from the boardgame version of 'all things zombie' by lock n load publishing. It fits my hexon tiles and doesn't require a massive amount of hexes to have a fun game.

What's good about the rules is that there are only two types of terrain - rough and building. I've recently modified some of my plain, unflocked boards in either rough, or grey. This has meant that the scenery has been placed in what ever looks good, but from a gaming perspective, it's the hex texture underneath which dictates it's function - brilliant!

We'll see if it works with the gaming party tomorrow...

 

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First go at second Deadzone

After making some command dice and Will and me picking some I modified.forces, we tried the new rules. I went with lots of cheap rebel troopers and s teraton. Will went for a small, hard hitting force based around a walker.

The game certainly moves a lot auicker, with the system stripped down to it's core mechanics. Will enjoyed these rules far more than the first set, for the simplicity fact alone.

I like the replacement of a lot of 'fluff' mechanics with the use of command dice. They create a lot of flexibility in a round, allowing simple stacking of the odds where you most need them.

As in the first edition, me playing the Rebs seemed to lead to lots of dead troopers very quickly! We weren't playing a scenario, but just testing the mechanics out. Maybe with a little more thought and consideration of the weapon types, they might play a lot better!

 

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Mutated hell from the bowels of the Deadzone

Had these three half finished too. I finished them off with a thick drybrush of artist's acrylics of light grey, and then painted highlight of dead white. The 'fleshy' parts were then completed with a blood red thick highlight. In game terms, they look like this:

They represent 2nd generation, alpha mutations, or 2As. Tough, but uncontrollable, these fearful predators love to mix it up close. Here's some close ups of the three malacious mutants:

 

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Now back to the beginning...

If you have been with me from the beginning of this blog, you might remember the figures in the picture above. They came from a painting photo log from some time ago. Well, it's only now that I have just finished them! Here's a couple more piccies of the finished pieces (thanks again to some weathering powder support).

 

 

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Deadzone Pathfinders

Well that didn't last long! Not really, these are some of the 'plastic' mountain. For some reason, unbeknown to me, Will has shown an interest in his Mantic Deadzone figure collection, and we received, free, the 2nd edition of the Deadzone rules. After trawling some forums, I was really impressed to find that if you backed the original Deadzone Kickstarter, you could receive the 2nd edition rules for free. After email contact with Mantic support, two days later, I received a link for a digital download - well done Mantic! Anyway, these are the troops from the Pandora game from some years age.i know that the figures are not exactly right, but to my mind, they fit in nicely with the pathfinder component of the Enforcer army list.

 

 

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First play of Chain of Command

I seem to really like games with the word 'command' in...Command and Colours for instance, and I think these rules will be added to that gaming treasure chest. As ever, I'm sure myself and Ed got some things wrong in our first game, but impressions were very positive.

We kept things simple, with nothing special for the list choices (snipers and leaders). The patrol phase made more sense in practically doing it than reading it in the rules. We quickly had our jump off points decided and we're ready to start to deploy troops for action.

After a little confusion between the difference of a squad and a section, the command rules made some sense, and I feel that there are some subtleties to be had in how they are used and interact.

Combat is fairly straight forward, and it feels like the creative energy of the game has gone into the control of the troops, rather than pointing their weapons for them; I certainly enjoy this approach, as other rules cater for those who prefer the mechanics of different weapon systems over the men using them.

Whilst I enjoy the gaming experience of boardgames such as 'Combat Commander' by GMT, these rules certainly strike the balance between visual appeal and playability. Once we began to understand the rules, it became clear that there was too much scenery on the table, as engagement ranges were very short. Consideration for terrain density needs thought to ensure an interesting game with several tactical options.

Thanks Ed for doing the hard graft of learning the majority of the rules, it has certainly helped me to engage with the game; my capacity to absorb new rules seems to get less and less as time moves forward. We will try a different scenario next time, but keep the forces simple again so as to learn the nuances of the rules.

 

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