Dem Bones: Time's Almost Up!

I know this is kind of 11th hour at the moment, but Reaper's Bones Kickstarter has less than FOUR DAYS LEFT!

If you are a lover of miniatures, I urge you to pledge. This project will add a huge selection to a line of cheap, durable, high detail plastic miniatures that will help make adding minis to your RPG sessions, warbands and armies extremely affordable. The minis market needs this cheap option, not only to let new players have access to basic models at reasonable prices, but also to challenge those "premium" miniatures companies who say they can't make quality figures for cheap. Reaper is one of the biggest in the business, so if they can do it, so can others! We want our cheap minis!

*Ahem*

If you a TRUE miniatures lover, you are going to want to pledge at the $100 Vampire level. There are currently 182 miniatures ( and more coming) offered at this level. That is 55 cents a miniature! There is absolutely no better deal out there at the moment. Even if you can't use all the figures, they still make cheap gifts and you can always trade 'em. Not to mention all the sweet add-ons you can unlock at this level. Dragons, giants, antediluvian terrors, all can be yours for an additional fee! Pledge already, damnit!

Plague And Pestilence

This one is a mini that I have had for a while and painted up about a year ago. Its a limited edition Chaos Sorcerer that was given out with White Dwarf magazine as a subscription bonus. Since I am a lover of all things Nurgle, his patron god was pretty much already decided.

Two things are missing from this miniature. The first is a horn, which can be seen by the hole in the side of the hood.  I left that off intenionally, because I wanted the Nurgle one-horn look and the hole looked good to me as-is, so I never bothered to fill it in. The second is a third hand, just below the outstretched one. I honestly lost the little sprue that had the two alternate hands on it. So instead I painted up the remaining bracer like a scroll and mad it look like it was being grasped in a tentacle. I think its nice and subtle.

I did my best to give the skin a corpse-like feel and to make the whole model look dirty. I am especially proud of the boil on the back tentacle. The boil is just paint-work and has not been raised at all with green-stuff or putty. I left the skin around it fleshy so it could look more sore and aggravated. The metal got a dingy, not quite rusty but dirty look. I also made the ground look scorched and unhealthy

Overall, this is one of my favorite miniatures. It inspires me to do more Nurgle miniatures in the future. Since I have a whole Warhammer army full of Papa Nurgle's followers, I have no shortage of willing subjects. In addition to serving as my Chaos army's sorcerer, he has also made appearances in my HeroQuest games (as a Chaos Warlock) and most recently as the villain in a Song of Blades and Heroes scenario. 

Short, Sweet and Deadly

Hasslefree Miniatures makes some of the best female beauties in the business. When I saw their new female dwarf slayer named Hayden (a possible nod to a certain diminutive cheerleader on that show that had the super powers; you know the one) I had to have her. Hayden is the first female slayer I have encountered, and certainly has the most appealing dimensions of any female dwarf I've ever seen. So, I bought her and painted her up:

I went with blonde mostly because it felt more "Hayden" to me, and added blue tattoos to break up all the skin (and there's quite a bit). Some close-ups of the tats (that's an "a" not an "i" you pervs):

This was my first time really painting extensive tattoos. I definitely need more practice. I aimed for a mixture of pseudo-Celtic swirls mixed with some Norse/Germanic symbols.

She also has a pretty nice caboose for a tiny little dwarf lady. At some point I would like to pick up the *ahem* resin version of her. I always enjoy painting up Hasslefree's stuff and I am definitely planning on more in the future. Their dwarf line in general is pretty amazing, so I may give her some more heavily armored backup down the line.

Favored Enemy: Dungeon Command

For this installment of Favored Enemy, I'm going to take a look at Wizards of the Coast's new miniatures game offering, Dungeon Command.

This won't be a true Favored Enemy column, since I have only played two games so far, but since it is new and I'm fairly excited about it, I wanted to give everyone else a look. Like all FE posts, this won't be a true review. I'm just going to ramble on about what I like and don't like (so far) and you're going to sit here and read it. Or go to a different website, because I suppose that's an option too. But I hope you don't. Please stay?

Anyway, before I left on my honeymoon, I cleverly pre-ordered both of the initial sets of Dungeon Command and, lo and behold, they were waiting for me when I got back. I may have squeeled like an 8-year-old girl when I collected our mail, or at least that's what my wife says. But since I'm the one writing this, I definitely did not. It was more like a 13-14 year-old girl at least.

The two sets I got were Sting of Lolth, a drow based set, and Heart of Cormyr, which centers around adventurers of various human and demi-human races. Each contains a pre-determined set of 12 miniatures and some pre-constructed decks of order and creature cards, along with dungeon tiles to play on and loads of tokens and counters.

Upon opening the box, I was impressed with the artwork and box quality:

The box cardboard is thin, but unless you really mistreat it, it should hold up just fine. I also liked that the box had a little latch built into it. They definitely intend for you to keep using this box to carry your miniatures, which the inside box set up also shows:

As you can see, the tiles sort of "lock" into place over the inside tray, and do a marvelous job of keeping everything in place. Even after turning the box completely sideways , nothing shifted. I haven't been brave enough to turn it upside down, but I can imagine only a couple pieces escaping, and the latch ensures that it will never spill open.

And speaking of the tray, everything inside is marvelously organized:

Each miniature has its own cozy little hole to live in and all the cards, tokens and counters have a spot of their own. It makes the little OCD part of my brain very happy, though I am already scheming ways to separate the tokens up even further with little plastic bags and such.

The rulebook is well laid out and the rules very easy to learn. The book itself its more like a pamphlet or small magazine and I was interested to see that each box's rulebook had a cover unique to that set:

It is a nice touch, but hopefully they move to something more generic in the future. I can't imagine it is cheap to commission new art for each set and the contents of the rules are exactly the same otherwise. I wouldn't like to see art costs drive the costs of the game up (or kill the game) for something that's kind of unnecessary.

The game itself is very simple: summon monsters to your start area and they move around the board, square by square, and attack your opponent's creatures. You can collect treasure to boost your warband's Morale (which goes down as you lose warriors; reach zero and you lose, kind of like "life points"). Rinse and repeat each turn until someone wins.

Two things really stand out, however. The first is that you have a deck of Order cards, which let your creatures perform more and different actions than just the basics. The second is that there are no dice. This is very different from other D&D games, and especially miniature games in general. Instead, you tap a creature's card (much like in Magic: The Gathering) and you do damage automatically. It was kind of hard to get used to at first, but I really like this aspect because it creates a more puzzle-like game where strategy is everything. The Order cards introduce a little bit of randomness and can prevent damage, but you have a lot more control of how and when you deal or prevent damage.

Setup takes up a little more room than your average board game, but this won't be new to miniatures gamers. Those just buying in expecting a board game will find the space issue somewhat of a problem. Each person needing their own box to play, however, should be a decent clue that this isn't your average board game. Incidentally, the boxes are set up to provide a well-balanced sample game out of a single set, with the miniatures and cards split between both players using a smaller board set-up. It isn't a full game experience but it is a great way to learn.

Each box comes with a choice of two commanders with different abilities that affect your warband. Some provide more Leadership/Morale (which summons more creatures or act like "life points" for your warband respectively) while others give you bigger Order or Creature card hands, affecting your options during the game. Each commander also provides a special ability to shake things up. 

As you can see, the miniatures are pre-painted. They are pretty much the same quality as WotC's other pre-painted models in the past and many are re-issues of those same figures with different paint. They aren't terrible, but they aren't great either. They get the job done though. I would have like to see a little more variety in the colors and the drow are just plain too dark.  

The tiles are the same quality as other D&D tile products and are thick and durable. Best of all, they have puzzle-like hooks on the edges, similar to the D&D adventure board games, that keep the battlefield together during play. This is very handy if you bump them accidentally. The textures on the dungeon side are beautiful, but I am not entirely happy with the outdoor sides on the reverse. 

It's less about their looks and more about outdoor battles are handled. Aside from slightly different looks and terrain, there is little to distinguish them from dungeon battles. Hills are treated as walls, so even flying models can't move over them. It would have been nice to see hills be more like difficult terrain that provided a high ground bonus, since that would have at least changed outdoor tactics and given a reason to choose it over dungeons. There are even random magic circles and treasure piles scattered around for apparently no reason.

Ultimately, though, I find the game fun. It plays fast, allows for strategy unhindered by horrible luck and has fighting in dungeons, which always makes me happy. It has a lot of room for expansion, and there are two more sets announced this year, goblins and undead. In fact, you are not limited to playing a single faction out of the box. There are rules to create your own decks of order and creature cards, and there is some benefit to getting multiple sets, although for a casual gamer such as myself there is no real need. So far the sets seem very balanced, and play uniquely, with many options within the set itself. So far I am favoring Heart of Cormyr, as they are very much my playstyle, but maybe as I play more and get used to the drow I will change my mind. Or maybe one of the new factions will steal my heart. Time will tell.

There is one surprise in the boxes that I found most welcome: Each box has a small set of cards to use in the D&D Adventure System games. If you own Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Asahardalon or Legend of Drizzt, then Dungeon Command is a great addition. A small handful of the miniatures in each set are painted versions of ones in the AS games, and come with new cards so they can be used as new monsters for custom scenarios. The Heart of Cormyr set has the best addition, in my opinion, as it allows allies for the AS system heroes to encounter and get help from. It is a unique, fun addition that adds new rules instead of retreading the same monster/encounter ground. 

There is a lost opportunity, in that no AS scenarios using the new cards were included. As it is, there are no real guidelines for making new scenarios and encounter decks in the base AS games, so it would have been nice to see something added for the less experienced players who aren't quite comfortable with making new scenarios yet. 

Dungeon Command gets a big thumbs up from me and I hope you try it out. If you are still on the fence you can check it out by reading he rulebook here. The price tag is $39.99 per set, but if you look around you can find some good deals.

Lord of the (Wedding) Ring

Ok, so far I haven't been very good at updating this blog thing I started, but I have a very good excuse: I got myself married!

Of course I decided to do this while I have had a couple major hobby projects going on and thus I ended up with few things to post. Now that my schedule has cleared up a bit, I hope to be able to post at least once a week. I promise nothing, but I will be doing my best to power through some things.

Also, having just returned from a honeymoon in Ireland, I am somewhat inspired to do a Dark Age or Medieval Irish warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. Anyone have any suggestions?

P.S. I spent a night in Lough Eske Castle while I was there. And I got to play some Lord of the Rings LCG while I was there. So I gamed in a castle. Be jealous.

I need a hero...oh wait, I have six!

Many years ago I was allowed to purchase the DragonQuest board game. I say "allowed" because my parents were vary wary of anything carrying the Dungeons & Dragons name and even though they had bought me HeroQuest previously, the anti-D&D paranoia was strong in culture at the time. Somehow I was immediately going to start worshiping demons if I pretended to fight goblins that weren't on a board (we now know that it takes decades for such things). But since DQ still had a board and little stand-ups, it was perfectly ok in their eyes. Of course it turned out it was really just D&D "lite" and the board really just a map. It wasn't long after that I (and possibly my new demon lords) convinced my parents to let me charge headlong into D&D proper.

One of the best things about DQ, however, is that it came with everything: Stand-ups, a map, dice, a few plastic figures for the heroes and, in the deluxe edition that I had managed to grab, there were metal versions of those figures. Of course being young, I quickly lost the plastic figures. Eventually I bought more metal figures and soon had no need for the stand-ups, so those disappeared too (and I would love to replace them without having to buy a new set). I even managed to lose a couple of the metal figures, but whilst digging around I found the remaining heroes and decided to paint them up. I even had so much fun that I purchased replacements for the lost ones and painted those too.

I really am in love with this set. I used it for all of my early D&D adventures and it most recently became the basis for my favorite Song of Blades and Heroes warband.

My favorite has always been the cleric:

The figure has always felt like epitome of the classic cleric: stoic, covered in heavy armor and wielding a huge, heavy blunt object in the name of his god. I chose blues and whites to give him a "good" appearance, since those colors are usually associated with good.

I have always liked the wizard of the set as well:

Of course, I now know that the figure was originally a cleric as well, but the robes and the staff still seem to fit a magic-user. I still think of it as a wizard when I look at it. I chose a strong green to make him stand out, but also so he could double as a druid easily. Lately he's been either an elf or half-elf too, and green seemed to fit those as well.

Next up is the dwarf:

He's always seemed tough and I love his armor because its understated but still gives the impression of being heavy. I chose the red and white coloration as sort of a tribute to the HeroQuest dwarf. I also made the buckler bronze to keep the model warm-looking but stand out from the rest of the model.

My least favorite has always been the thief:

My objections to this model have always been based on his indistinct race. He's short, but not quite short enough to be a halfling. He's not quite tall enough to be a human, but too hawk-nosed to be an elf. Still, he is a quintessential cloak-and-dagger thief. I chose purple to keep him shadowy, but retain a splash of color.

The elf was also one of my favorites:

I liked the elf so much that I played a long string of elves and I had actually painted him once before. Originally, I had decided he must be a ranger, so his first paint job was all greens and browns. It was also atrocious, so I stripped the model and re-painted him as more of a swashbuckler. The turquoise cloak suggests "seafarer" to me and the puffy white shirt says "duelist". I went with bronze again to warm the model back up.

Finally there is the paladin:

I had the most trouble deciding how to paint this one. Eventually I settled on a templar theme with white, but I wanted to stay away from red as I had already used that combination on the dwarf. I chose orange because it was still in the red family and I really hadn't worked with much orange before, so I wanted the challenge. I tried to keep the armor dark, to contrast with both his weapon and to keep him different from the cleric. I also chose blue runes on his axe to catch the eye and contrast with the orange.

All in all, I am very happy with the end result. It was fun to paint some classic favorites and I am really starting to appreciate the old Ral Partha minis again. They seemed fairly understated, had little in the way of gaudy detail, but still had more character than a lot of minis today. I know I have more stashed away somewhere, so I know more will find their way to the paint table and onto the blog.

Maybe I can still find my owlbear...

Shadows of the (Gaming) Past

Lately I have found myself looking more and more at games that come from at least a decade ago. I also find myself wondering why that is. For example, I have been recently enthralled in looking at the Guardians CCG from 1995.

I remember loving the game because it was innovative (it had a board game quality to it), had an extremely tongue-in-cheek attitude about humor and because I was 14 and it was filled with high-quality art of scantily clad babes (for reference, I am still, essentially 14).

                     

I also find myself at a loss because while I still have a load of cards,  I must have lost my actual deck somewhere and I am missing essential things like Stronghold cards needed to play. So, I immediately headed to eBay, but just couldn't pull the trigger. I think I was mostly suffering from extreme nostalgia, and I wanted to think about it more before I spent money on something old that could be used for something new.

But that really is the crux of the issue, I think. I am looking back because there isn't a whole lot of new to look forward to. I mean, I have Ogre coming from SJG via Kickstarter (that's right, I'm a backer!) near the end of the year. I have Mice & Mystics from Plaid Hat Games (adorable and you should check it out; I will most likely do a feature on it when I get it) coming in August and a new edition of Warhammer 40K sometime this year by all accounts.

Everything else is pretty underwhelming at the moment. I should be excited for the X-Wing minis game from Fantasy Flight Games, but the price is putting me off. They also pushed back their Star Wars card game, so that's off the table for a while. There are many other games I have wishlisted, but I can never seem to get them out of the queue. I just simply don't feel inspired to spend money on them.

So I go back to the games of yesteryear. I think there are a number of factors at work here:

• Nostalgia: It is hard to argue with a game that made Kid Me pants-wettingly happy. Memories of old friends and awesome nights spent playing are a huge bonus.
• Cost: I already own these games, so they are free. Dead games, unless really rare, are also extremely cheap to replace if necessary. And usually you don't need to collect everything to do so, so its a cheap buy-in.
• It is a known quantity: I know I like these games. Hell, I loved them. It is easier to plop down $10-$30 for a game I know I liked and know how to play still (mostly) than it is to drop $50-$100 on a new game I may be disappointed with.

So, yeah, I may be scrounging up old parts for WarhammerQuest (not cheap but a fantastic game; only need  a few bats to finish it off), getting a couple of starter decks for Guardians (haven't yet, but really I'm just delaying the inevitable) or hunting for an actual set of paper stand ups from TSR's DragonQuest board game (impossible as far as I can tell). Hell, I regularly pull out my HeroQuest set and it is probably my favorite game of all time actually. 

All of these games are around 15-20 years old now, but I am having a lot of fun, and that's what gaming is all about, in the end. It doesn't matter what game you are playing as long as you are having fun.