Whispers from the warp

Fast update of some ladies

2015-10-02T18:19:00.001+02:00

Two days, for two days I've tried to give you and update on what I've actually since painted recently (actually it looks I havent updated with something I painted this year yet), but the lighting conditions in sweden at this moment won't allow it the weather and shortness of the day means there is very little daylight to go around. While I could probably take the shots in lamplight I feel it distorts the colours.

Well here's the shots I tried taking

Helleria Drakkenfield from the TGG kickstarter, quite an improvement in work from my Angelics Drachen last year wouldn't you say (Ok most of the credit goes to armypainters quickshade, wonderful stuff)? Knowing I'm bad at eyes and hoping that the wash would make shades that made them superfolous I ignored painting them and it almost worked but not quite, especially not when seeing the model this close.

Another one of the same model in brighter daylight still very one sided, I may have to start taking the shots outside proper if I'm to get goood light.

And another taken the first day

Second day from behind

First day from behind.

And here's Natasha KST com operator, I tried another approach t the eyes here and painted some extra shade into them first hoping that it'd look like they were hidden in shade, isntead it looks like she's taken a page out if a teenagers makeup guide.

And again

Now some other stuff I've had a really hard time getting the basecoat to stick to some of these minis Also I have a few with airbubbles, I'll contact Raging heroes with my issues and I'll let you know how it goes.
These models as can be seen from the brass black and red are intended for my Bauhaus army for WZR. Honestly the quality of painting makes me want to go back and redo Angelica Drachen.

til next time, then we'll hopefully be looking at Grubbers from Myth.

Girls Girls Girls part deux, or the image dump

2015-10-01T18:29:00.000+02:00

Lo folks this is a thing I haven't done in a long long time.

I painted a fair deal sicne last your heard from me, Grubebrs for Myth, Some of the characters from the raging heroes ktoughest girls in the galaxy kickstarter. But first I realised I havent shared the bulk of the shots I took of the models from that kickstarted as the arrived. I have shown the freebies but not the stuff I paid for (and actually wanted). I took this pictures months ago but haven't gotten around to post them yet, problem is I have no idea whatsoever of what's what any more so I'll be a terrible person and just dump all the pictures I've taken here and hopefully I'll come back some day and fix it.
So with no further ado lots and lots of pictures with no further explanation:

Ah these picture smake me miss the summer, it was so nice to go out and take pictures in daylight. There's really no better lamp than a 400 trillion trillion watt one (and that may just be the wattage that hits earth).

Until next time.

The parts part (Makitainers)

2015-05-06T18:12:00.005+02:00

So this time we'll be dealing with... stuff... I guess. Loads of stuff. If you dont get what this stuff is for then I direct you to my last post on the makitainer system. How much is loads of stuff you ask? Well let's find out.

This much. So let's get started.

These fellas are steps for the stairs. As you can see 24 pieces (at the ranger pledge level)

Up close, the underside is basically blank so I wont be showing that.

And 7 pieces of walkway.

Railing, 4 pieces (which seems kind of low, I'll have to recheck this)

Up close one side

and up close the other side

And side pices of railing. I dont seem to have ny up close of them. Anyway 14 of them.

Sci-fi railing, endpices 6 pieces.

And up close

And from the other side

sci fi side railing 6 pices

Now we've looked a lot at railing and you're probably aksing yourself, how does it work, so before proceeding further let me explain that.

You stick a pice of end railing on a walkway like this the pins on the side of the walkway can either be used to attach it to the makitainers or...
(The mini is Angela drachen from the Warzone ressurection range, she's a 28mm mini on a 40mm base)

Pieces of side railing. These can be stuck to the side of makitainers too suing a small extra peg that I'll show below.

This is how it might look with side and end railing.

Or like this in the sci-fi case.

So on to other parts.

Here are two ladders.

up close

and the other side. These are some of the few items bent in shipping. Now some of you may say but it's metal and you can bend it back, but look up metal fatigue and you'll realise it's not that simple. Ah well there's always soemthing I guess. But let's look at how th ladders work.

The pin goes in one of the holes on the side of the floors. same holes as the railing use. It's probably meant to hang not be attached at the bottom but I had no assembled makitainers when I made this.

Next up are these, these are the way of fioxing the aweful skulls from the wh40k looking side of the makitainer (theme). 16 of them, which might actually be the number of makitainer walls I have. Well let's look at how they work.

Maiktainer with aweful looking skull (Or awesome looking skull if you're a 40kplayer, Then you could ignore this part ^^) And one of those pieces.

And voila, skull b-gone. But it still looks kind of cheesy.

Also again there is some discrepency between walls and doors as seen below

Door piece from the 40k side. Now look what happens

NOOO! Impossible! (I haven't had a nerd quote in either of these articles yet, star wars isnt star trek but it'll have to do) Anyway it doesn't fit which means that there's no wya to cover up the skulls that you are actually most likely to see. And even if it had worked the SPIRITUS still would be there. Ah well what can you do...

Onwards

I have no freaking idea what these are, if someone knows please drop a comment below.

These are lamp posts. Well the post part. there are four of them

These are the feet of the lamp posts. suprisingly there are four of those too.

These are the lamps of the lamp posts, I'm guessing you will not be surpised by the number of them.

Lamp post lamp from the top

Same item from the bottom. Notice the hole we'll use that later.

Lamppost feet from above, notice that the only diffrence between them is that this one has a hole in the top too (from this side).

And from below. This one has a flat bottom instead of the tiers on the lamp part.

Here are all parts needed to make a streetlight/lampost (what's the diffrent really? Brittish american?)

And the finished thing, Some force may solve the issues. Notie that like the ladder the metal components are again slightly bent. Soft metal has certain drawbacks.

These are Trusses, Unfortunatly since they only have one peg they have a habit of spinning unless you glue them. Which I'dmrather avoid doing. I'm thinging some blue tack or maybee magnets will solve the issue. 12 of them.

These are railing for stairs twelve of them.

These are also raling for stairs, no it's not the same photo mirrored.

From one side

From the other. Notice the long things at the top on one side and the bottom of the other. That is so you can do this:

Linking them up several to each other. The wierd thign is you kind of have to link at least two up to make on stair able to reach to te top of a container, so I don't get why they just didn't make them twice as long.

Here we have a stair segment. When I made this I kind of screwed up. I thought the pegs were suposed to go down, they're suposed to be on the up side so that the stair hangs from the same holes as the ladders walkways and railing.

A full size stair, still built wrong.

And a finished stair hooked up wrong for size comparision. It's a bit dissapointing really the stairs look way to big for 28mm which they suposedly are made for. i get that the intention is that you should be able to place minis in the stair but I'm still no fan.

Next are these prices

And these. no closeups needed. They are blockers for those things that you use to link the stairs. They seem kind if redundant if you dont plan to make something permanent.

These pieces

Go like this

And these

Go like this

And last but not least

86 pieces (I cheated, there was no way to take this photo in a way that made it intuitive) of lose pins that can be used for any number of diffrent things. Like stickign railing ti makitainers or makitainer to makitainer and so on.

Well that's that. Until next time folks.

Maki the best of it

2015-05-06T14:56:00.001+02:00

Lo folks it's the Makitainers from Maki Games. Again a kickstarter I participated in. A set of modular floors walls and such that can make wargaming scenary. I have a shitload of pictures so I will be breaking the article up in two. One for walls and floor and one for... stuff.

So let's get to it,

These are makitainers. Five diffrent ones. The makitainer is the basic structure of the modular system. Now it's not really five diffrent ones, becuase the walls and floors are two sided so each can form two diffrent versions.

This is the standard unit. often called a makitainer. This side looks like a shipping container. The kind you usually find near docks.

The doors swing open, I didn't open them to much though because they are also two sided and the back has a very diffrent theme (a bit to diffrent if you ask me).

This is also the standard makitainer with walls floors and doors flipped. It has a very warhammer 40k look. One that I really aren't to fond of. Why wouold my regular shipping containers have skulsl and worls like angelus and spiritus and sangri written on the inside. I guess the reason they did it like this is because they wanted their initial product to be able to appeal to as many demographics as possible as to boost the kickstarter participation (or sales if they had only managed to fund one theme). But after they had funded a more theme they should have paired the container of with something more fitting and the warhammer 40k side with somethign more fitting for that. But then again I do like the other themes they did add.

This is the steampunk side from the steampunk/industrial theme, notice the floor is the same as I previously used in the warhammer 40k one. This is because the steampunk/industrial theme doesnt have a floor of it's own. But it works well so I have no complaints about that. The door is however part of the set (and has two sides) Now on to my favourite version

This is the industrial side of the steampunk/industrial theme. It has Brick and fans and for some reason a corrugated metal door (I think this is the side that is suposed to go with the industrial side). I'm a little dissapointed about the door (who has a corrugeted metal door on a brick building?) but the bricks are great and it's very likely that this is the side I'll mostly use (though probably not in such small segments. Oh neither of these doors open.

Now lets look at the individual parts

This is a floor, The floor does come in several varieties but the themes I went for (makitainer and steampunk/industrial) both use this one. As I said it's two sided.

This is the other side of the floor. Aside from when I'm making containers with the makitainers container side I'll probably be using this side. It's simply a whole lot nicer to look at.

I pldeged at the ranger level and got 22 floor tiles of this kind. Now accute readers will be saying "Wait this kind didn't you just say you only got the two themes which uses this floor?" Well actually I did get one more thing. I got a sushibar inspired by the one in bladerunner which has parts from the scifi theme. And that has floor of it's own.

And this is it. And yes this is not the same size as the others I did get some sci fi floors with full size too but I kind of built the sushi bar already. So I'll show those as part of the Sushibar near the end.

Here's the backside of the sci-fi floor. Notice both sides are sci fi here. I really think that long term this is the waythey should go. You expose both sides of a part far to often to go with themes that are very diffrent.
Well I got two of these square floors and two of the full size ones in the sci-fi set I bought (as a part of the susibar set is was really really cheap). And that's all for floors (for now). Let's look closer at the doors (not the band).

This is the corrugated metal door that I think belongs to the industrial set. It dosnt open but I think it may have been cast so that it's possible to crack it open in the middle and use it as an openable door. I havent tried, mostly because I like my fingers the way they are.

Here's the steampunk version of the same door. Since I'll mostly be playing warzone which kind of can do the whole steampunk thing (well actually dieselpunk) I'll probably be using this side with the bricksides of the steampunk/industrial theme.

This is the container door from the makitainer. if you look really closely you can see it's two separate parts lying really close to each other. If I make containers I might actually use the corrugated steel side of the others too. It looks better, though granted that this one does open, but then again it opens to reveal this:

Oh god my eyes hurt, those really cant be used for anything except warhammer 40k. There's a slight fix for the skulls but the thing saying spiritus I'd have to scrape of.

Now these are all the doors (I'm sorry I dont seem to have taken any overview photos of how many of each kind I got) so there's one thing I should say. The people designing this system did one massive mistake. The doors are made to fit the short sides of the floors, but the doors are not a swide as the wall segments meaning that while you could make a wall segment work on a short side it means you'd have to use doors elsewhere to do that. It means the sytem isn't fully modular. Which is kind of sad if you aks me because it would've been so much nicer to work with if it was.

This is a wall segment. You use two wallsegments per long side of the floor (what is the point of not just havign one long one of you can't easily stick it on the short side anyway?). In this case it's the brick (industrial) side of the steampunk/industrial (I'm getting tired of writing that out).

And this is the steampunk side of the same piece. Another majir bitching point (I do bitch about stuff, it's one of my talents) is the pins. While they as shown by the guys over maki games can stand that your stand on the makitainers they dont last long if you keep taking the things apart. I've broken like 3 of them in just two days of playing with the stuff. And I'm actually trying to be carefull.

This is the container side of the makitainer, it's very simple but I think there will be use of it anyway. certainly more use than:

I'm sorry but this still make me cringe. yes the skull kan be fixed but that still leaves it with a cheesy wh40k look. Again i seem to have forgotten the overview photo of the wall segments. I'll probably edit that in asap (which for my probably means in a few months).

Well only one thing left to bitch about. Let's look at the floors again

This is the corner of one of the floor tiles.

You'll see that the holes on the long side and the holes on the short side don't match up. This is because the doors are meant to go on the short side and wall segments on the long side. And it's totaly unessecery and limits the modularity (is that even a word) of the system. Which is kind of sad since it's actually kind of fun, reminds me a bit of playing with lego as a kid really.

So how crazy can it get? Well let's take a look at that sushi bar!

Well it doesnt look a thing like bladerunner but it's a cool building. I had to make some choices because of the lack of modularity though as we'll see in the next pic. (also Angela drachen from Warzone for size)

Like the corrugated metal door right out into nothing at the end of the top one. You'll also note there are a lot of stuff on these pictures I havent yet shown you. Well that's what the next part of this series is for. Stuff!

See you next time folks.

PS. Oh I almost forgot one pirce of awesome Kudos. Shipping, with the possible exception of the tablescapes this was shipped snugger and more efficiently than any other kickstarter I ever participated in. And it may have the least amount of broken or bent stuff too.

Girls Girls Girls

2015-04-09T19:03:00.000+02:00

No this is not a Mötley Crüe music video. Nor is it any of the things I promised last time. Sorry about that. My freebies from the Toughest Girls in The Galaxy (From Raging Heroes) kickstarter showed up.If my writing is even more irrational than usual then it's because I also got a can of armypainter quickshade yesterday anddecided to try it out, turns out it's Naptha based and can get you really really dizzy. But at this point I'm pretty sure I'll live. Just a piece of advice to you all out there, if you get this, dont work wth it in your bedroom. I'll tell you it's not a pleasent experience.

But now on to the Girls. Oh and most of these photos are taken through the magnifying lense of the worklight. I'm still not sure the results are better or worse.

Female Ratling or Child soldier, TGG calls them Lulus.Part of the Jailbirds faction. I'm not big on the whole child soldier thing not am I big fan of the Jailbirds in general. But hey free stuff.

Ash, tank gunner (Jailbirds tank officer). Kind of good for a jailbird. If I paint the abdormen as being covered by a skin tight shirt instead of bare I may be able to use her. Her name make my think of Evil dead and Amry of Darkness. Though she's lacking both chainsaw and boomstick.

Netha, the Faceless Mother. The Iron Empire freedom fighter. Worst Mini in the whole damn thing. I absolutly loathe the whole Mystical Pregnancy trope. This mini is utterly pointless for my uses, I doubt I'll even paint it up as a display piece. But then again I got it for free. Now to bury it in a box somewhere.

Nurse Karoline, from the Kurganova Faction. Great mini. Overall Kurganova and Iron Empire tend to go easier on the fan service.

One of the most awesome minis of the entire set. Svetlana the Light of freedom. KST freedom fighter. I'll be certain to make use of her in my bauhaus army.

Lucky Lucy (I'm guessing Lucky Luke joke? I loved that show as a kid), Jailbirds spotter. Again a little to much fanservice for my taste but I'll probably paint the mini p to use as an NPC or something.

Jaheda Kono Armoured Division's officer. I'm guessing KST (Kurganova Shocktroopers). It's a nice mini, I can't think of a direct use for it atm but I'll probably try to get it painted in the scheme of my Bauhaus Force regardless.

Now time for Mascots, these were kind of hard to photograp properly

Jinx IE (Iron Empire) mascot.

Harry the baby Hippo, JB (jailbirds) macot.

Charlie KST macot.

Raven the Chainbreaker, JB freedom fighter. head.

same as above, body.

and leg and arm.

Kristina Karlstein, Armoured Division Officer. The IE tank officer. It's a nice mini and I'll try to find a use for it. But tank commanders arent all that great if you don't have tanks.

W101, Iron Empire Cyber Zombie Bodyguard. Very much meh. Might be able to use her as sme kind of dark legion mini I supose. But the whole Technomancy trope is something I find utterly boring.

And some more parts of the former

and some more.

Natasha, Com Operator, Nice mini I'll probably attatch her to a squad of hussars. Bring some variety to them. If painted the same then she should fit in regardless if her actual looks are similiar.

And that's your horoscope for today. And I'll see you next time.

Mere Myth I tell you!

2015-01-23T14:40:00.002+01:00

Lo folks,
It's been a while but I've finally got those shots of the stuff I recieved from the Myth kickstarter. Also I found my camera, got a new computer (I can write @ again!), and a new worklight.
The thing that expedited my decision to actually post this was the fact that the makitainers from maki games arrived today. Also I recived my wave two of Warzone ressurection, don't know if I've told you about that, as well as three PDFs from the Mutantchronicles RPG reboot which I'd like to review. and I can't really review any of this until I review Myth. Now I still havent finished playing a game, much because the people I live with dont seem to have time to play. But I'll review the minis and the boards.

So what you really are here for:

Pictures! Let's start with the minis.
And first of the servants of the darkness.

These are the minis I recived from the 'crawler' type of enemy, now only the small ones are really called crawlers, but I'll call all groups after the name of the basic minion. There are two kinds of minion crawlers, the close combat and the ranged. It's hard to tell but they are slightly diffrent. I recieved 9 ranged crawlers, and 11 close combat ones. I also revieved four of the scorpion guys, who are lieutenants. The boss "The terror with a tousand legs" is he called, and last a lair.

This is a captain level crawler (Stalker) up close, great mini and really sturdy which is nice, and unfortunatly not true for everything.

This is a ranged crawler, they have poison sacs at the sides of their head. These will show better once painted.

This is a close combat crawler, he has no poison sacs but instead has larger claws.

This is the crawler Lair (I think)

And the terror with a thousand legs.

Here we have grubbers (Orks to any other system, but I guess they wanted something they could copyright), there are three kinds of basic grubber, axe dagger or club and shield. There are 7 dagger grubbers,7 Club and shield grubbers, and 7 axe grubbers. There are also 4 captains, a lair and a boss; Orcneas, master of masters.

Here we have a captain grubber (called Muckers), Had to bend a fair few of those weapons straight after shipping, using boiling water.

Dagger grubber

Club and Shield grubber

Axe grubber

Grubber Lair, again I think so they are never really designated as such.

And Orcneas, master of masters. You'll note his weapons are bent, I have straightened them twice using hot water and they just keep bending back to this. I wish minatures companies would start shipping their stuff as fragile.

These are Sycline, I have very few of them for some reason.

Five 'rogue' sycline and 5 club syclopts, 2 lieutenant sycline, a lair and a boss called Syklopt.

lieutenant Sycline (Sycleech

Sycline lair, I'm pretty sure about this one.

Rodgue Sycline, now these often came with bended legs. And they have also proven to be quite good at bending back after you fixed them.

Club Sycline

And Syclopt

These fellas on the other hand I have loads of, They're called oh so originally (for copyright purposes) shamblers. 7 dagger shamblers 7 bow shamblers, and 8 claw Shamblers. In addition to this 4 captains called soulles, A big miniboss and a boss called Bones (Damnit it Jim I'm a doctor not a Orthopedic).

Soulles, That staff was almost universally bent, but hey atleast it straight now after me fixing it... twice. half of them had broken free of their bases in shipping too.

Claw shambler, sturdier than he looks I managed to make one of these fly across the room and hit the other wall and he wasn't even dented. Got to love plastic over resin.

Archer shambler, Seems odd that he has a ranged attack considering how he's using the bow.

Dagger Shambler.

I think this is the shambler lair.

Big miniboss guy, I can't remember his name right now but I'll edit it in later. (Yardu)

And Bones.

These are some elemental guys, but mechanical. They come in three varieties, earth, wind and fire (Yeah I don't doubt that the imossion of water is a reference to the band). No boss here, he needed be purchased separatly and I'm a poor man. 5 earth 5 fire and 6 wind. Not to mention three huling big lieutenants who appear to be mechanical in nature.

Iao, (Captain)

Lair, again no argument over who's lair this is.

Earth (iathi)

Wind (iathi)

And fire (Sorry stupid puns are just my nature) (iathi)

Skaven... I mean tailless. Anyway rat people, they come in two varieties, dagger and slingshot (nice idea btw). 8 Daggers and 8 slingshots. 4 crossbow lieutenants, 1 minibos 1 lair and one boss know as the rat king.

Crossbow lieutenant. /Rath)

Dagger tailless, notice he's really tail less.

Slingshot tailless.

Tailless lair, it's the most obvious one, there's a rat on the sign.

Keesi (rider) and Ogg (rat thing)

And the rat king, i think this may be a Terry Pratchett reference but could be they are just inspired by the same thing.

Traps

Chain Lightning Trap (I think)

Avatar of Winter (frost trap), also notice the bent sword, yep striaghtened that twice, most recently yesterday.

Whirlwind of Steel

Poison Darts

Dragon's Breath

And the most straight forward of all, the boulder trap, a classic worthy of indiana jones.

Now for some bosses that don't belong in a cathergory.

Twilight knight miniboss.

Dog miniboss. (Conner)

Minotaur miniboss (Etrus the Last) That hammer is another of those hard to fix items.

Razorfiend, the first unlocked stretchgoal.

And Urulók the young, a dragon and the hardest boss in the game.

Now on to what we've all been waitng for, heroes.

This is out hero gallery, there are two of each, a male and a female (though the two furries are hard to gender identify). From left to right, Tinkerers, aprentices, brigands, soldiers, adepts and Archers.

Tinkerers

Apprentices

Again Apprentices

Brigands

again

Soldiers

Adepts

again

Archers.

There are also two other characters who are neither villains nor heroes. companions.

Some torchbearer guy.

And Marcus the ready.

Now lets look at tiles. There are three diffrent kinds of tiles in myth, 4x6, 6x6, and 12x12. These can in turn be combined to six diffrent title areas. 4x6, 6x6, 12x12, 6x12, 4x12, and 24x12.

Let's look at them, niw all shots are taken at an angle so that they cant be used to reproduce the tiles, I hope that will dissuade Merc Minis from asking me to take the pictures down.

All tiles are double sided, I cant remember which ones are original and which ones are from the addons. But let's start with 12x12s

Pretty sure this one is an addon tile

The even numbered pics are all the backside of the odd numbered ones.

ok now 6x6s

and 4x6s

Well there is little reason for me to tell you what's on these tiles you can see that fine yourselves.

So what is my conclusion on the project as a whole? The art direction is great, the tiles are gorgeuous and never have I ever seen miniatures that match the style of the artwork so well. The system I havent had time to test properly yet and will return to you on. If you want to understand the tiles and the rules better then there are some great videos on youtube. My one gripe with the miniatures is the fact that some pretty thick stuff got bent, which must have required quite a lot of pressure over quite a lot of time. As I said earlier I believe that makers of miniatures should really start shipping stuff as fragile. Another gripe is the learning curve of the game, this is not a starter game, it will tell you half the stuff and rely on that you can figure the rest out or make it up yourselves. And that can be quite anoying. Next up is reviewing the makitainers, the RPG and whine some more about Prodos and their shiping (I'm sure they love when I do that) as well as paint all this stuff. Oh and I got to show of my pretty new work light. The thing that made all the miniatures redish in the pics ;)

well until next time folks.

Tablescapes™: An in-depth look.

2014-11-23T02:35:00.000+01:00

Lo folks, the other tablescapes post got a bit long so I decided to move the in depth look on the set to this post. Again, this is taken with a mobile phone camera so I'm really sorry about the quality of the pictures. This post is mostly just pictures, my comments will be nominal, this is for people who want to see every tile.

I got two sets of tabelscape tiles, the rolling fields and the scrapyard. Each of them sixteen tiles. Now the rolling field comes in two of each kind, while every tile in the scrapyard is a unique piece. But lets start with the rolling fields tiles.

Here we have what I have dubbed Rolling Fields #1 (that's not hashtag one kids that's number one), not much to say It's a nice open tile.

Rolling Fields #2, much the same as the last one, but the details vary.

Rolling Fields #3 Some rocks on it otherwise very open.

Rolling Fields #4, some large rocks, I think of this as a lightly obstructed tile when trying to balance the sides. Of course this is the tile that is most obstructed in the rolling fields set.

Rolling field #5, open if with a natural hill or slope.

Rolling Fields #6, first Rivertile, the shallow but wide one.

Rolling Fields #7, second rivertile. River bend. It's a nice tile but the almost direct 90 degree angle will make it look odd. Small rivers dont look like this they did deep and fast and don't "go straight except when they turn 90 degrees". I'm not really a fan of rivers as a battlefield thing at all, real life rivers in a miniatures scale would be wider than the entire table.

Rolling Fields #8, the last rivertile. The deep and narrow one. Again, small rivers down even run over flat open ground like this but I guess I have to think of it as a man made ditch or something like that.

Well that was the unique tiles of the Rolling Fields set there are two of each in a box. Now on to the cooler (if perhaps harder to find a way to use) scrap yard. Here there are 16 unique tiles.

Scrapyard #1, Open tile with some low detail.

Scrapyard #2 open tile with much the same kind of detail elements as the first one but a different composition.

Scrapyard #3, again similar elements bind them together but unique composition keeps it from looking repetitive.

Scrapyard #4 same comment as above.

Scrapyard #5, sorry can't think of anything smart to say here either.

Scrapyard #6 I am impressed with how so many tiles look similar but without there being one single exact duplicate.

Scrapyard #7

Scrapyard #8 Well now it gets interesting. And obstruction, I'd call this a light obstruction like the rocks in the rolling fields above.

Scrapyard #9, again a light obstruction.

Scrapyard #10, another light obstruction.

Scrapyard #11, a little wider obstruction.

Scrapyard #12, medium obstruction one of three of what I call barricade tiles, three similar tiles but with variations to make them different.

Scrapyard #13 the second barricade tile. Medium Obstruction.

Scrapyard #14, the last barricade tile. Medium Obstruction.

Now to the cool stuff.

Scrapyard #15 is the first scrap hill tile and is the secondly heaviest obstructed pile in both my sets. I consider this a heavy obstruction and thus it shouldn't be on the same side as this tile:

Scrapyard #16, the second scrap hill and it's the heaviest obstructed tile there is on these sets.

Very well, this is all, now if you came here from the main post this is where you get back to it. (But if you can pressing back will place you right where you left off)

until next time.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: A Tablescapes™ Review

2014-11-23T01:55:00.001+01:00

(For part 2 the in depth look)

Hello again folks, today I'm reviewing the Tablescapes™ (for my insistance of using ™ needlessly I refer you to my last post) tiles from Secret Weapon Miniatures which I backed during their run at kickstarter last year. Well now the tiles have finally arrived. They may be late I don't know, I'm more of th kind of guy who is happy as long as the stuff do show up, when is only really an issue if I need it for something where I have a deadline. And in this case I don't.
I backed it for two sets of 16 tiles, each tile is roughly 30x30cm (that's exactly 1 feet or 12 inches for you overseas types, now tell me how a bihexadecimal unit system is better than the SI one), i decided to go for the rolling fields and the scrap yard. One for sci-fi games and one for sci-fi and fantasy games. What I plan to do with them I'll get back to near the end, because now you've had enough of my ranting, you folks want to see some pictures.
And "Hey, it's what I do" (Do I get bonus points for both quoting Star Trek and Stargate in the same post?), though in advance let me apologize for the bad quality of the pictures, I seem to have misplaced my real camera again so this is my mobile phone camera, and regardless of how many megapixels it has according to the commercials that's not a good replacement for a real objective.

(and here I for some reason for a moment thought that since blogger and google drive are both google I could just drag and drop the pictures, how foolish of me of course I need to download the pictures from the google servers in order to upload them to the google servers, well I still press the delete key in order to delete files so I'm not entirely lost to mac thinking as of yet)

Well, here we have two very nice professional looking boxes. the rolling fields tiles didn't quite fill out the box they came in, but on the other hand the crap yard tiles, having more stuff on them did. These two boxes were also shipped in a larger box in which they fit like a glove. There was however a lack of packing material around them.

Here's one individual tile, each of them was wrapped in a plastic bag, the scrap yard tiles also had a back around every stack of four tiles too. And to all you bleeding environmental hearts out there, first of Sweden recycles plastic, secondly I have no intention of throwing most bags away anyway, once I've painted these tiles (Hey! I do finish painting stuff sometimes) they'll go back in the bags so they don't chip each other's paintwork while in storage.

Here we have four tiles laid out right next to each other, just laying there they fit together this snug also notice how well they go against the surface (unfortunately that wasn't true for all of them, but more on that later) and that's without any help. But that's not enough if you ask Secretweapon miniatures, no they think that since you'll be playing on these, you need them to fit together even better and that's where these come in:

These are what I call clips, they're meant to hold the tiles together. I knew there would be clips but in this bag there was a pleasant surprise (They might have said there would be but I must have missed that).

These are the two varieties! I only expected the four way ones, but we got two way ones to hold the sides too, Or if you make small (60x30) two tile display board to fit in say a bookshelf (it just happens to be that 60cm is a pretty common bookshelf width, I might be showing you something cool relating to that not too far into the future) you go for only two way ones.

This is how they work.

Here's said two tile display board, upside down.

Here's one such display board with clips (the front one) next to one without them (the one in the back)

Here's how the four way clip works.

When using more than two tiles you fir the two way tiles around the edges.

Here's a finished 60x60 board, compare it to the picture above where the same tiles are just lying next to each other, now you can barely see the seams. And that's not just because of how crappy the camera I'm using is, I barely could in real life either.

Here we have a 90x120cm table laid out, and while the clips were great there is some limit to what you can put together and then expect to turn without it falling appart and this is it, it fell to pieces when I tried turning it. I wanted to show all the rivertiles in one board and the size of my table wouldn't allow me to put the massive 120x120 table that this set could form using all tiles. Fear not I might have access to a 'slightly' larger table in the basement (the awesome thing with living in a commune with five other guys roughly my age is we have a table tennis table in the basement). But before I move I need to adress the issue of the tiles that didn't fit snugly on the table.

Before you watch I kindly ask tat you turn of the sound, I have never before recorded anything for publishing online, english is not my native language and so on, I sound like a moron.

You didn't turn of the sound did you? Well now that I've sufficiently both embarrassed myself and proven to you that the tile in questions really do wobble we can forget that that ever happened and get on with the issue.

Here's the tile, yes acute viewer will notice it's day most of these photos, but not in the video clip, the first clip was so bad I had to redo it a day later. Very well Let's find out why this tile wobble (And not's not in order so that the Koch brothers can deny global warming but good guess).

As you can see the edge has been dented in shipping. And it unfortunately wasn't the only one.

All these three tiles from the Rolling fields wobbled, as well as one in the scrapyard. I'll leave my comment on this for my conclusion.

Here I have laid out an almost full rolling fields table, unfortunately I forgot the first wobbling tile upstairs when I made this board hence it's fifteen tiles large rather than sixteen. This is without the clips. When Clipping a table this size you have to do it in segments. now if you make it right you do four four tile segments and then put them together similar to how I do below but here's a nice guide on how to make a nice fifteen tile one.

Attatch six tiles to each other with the clips sticking out one one side.

Then the same on the other. Then attach the middle tiles from above.

And voila, here's the table attached to each other, an almost full rolling hills set.

Then I opened the Scrap yard set and made a full board of that.

And last I combined them all (including the missing rolling fields tile) to one massive 240x120 table (32 tiles, 4x8). My only gripe with the design of the tiles is that the river looks very unnatural in straight lines like that. But some paint and water effect might change that.

Now this post is getting rather long and I really wanted to go into a look at each tile and explain the sets, so I'll partition that to a separate post which I'll link to here, and then go straight to the conclusion.

So what is my conclusion. Well having four out of 32 tiles crooked was a bit disappointing, but truth be told, I'm not mad, I have yet to contact Justin over at Secretweapons Minis and see what their policy is on bent tiles. And also, this is a kickstarter, and when moving such a massive inventory under the pressure of the product not even existing when you start means that accidents and mistakes will happen. How they handle those accidents and mistakes is what defines how well they handled the kickstarter. I am a merciless person when it comes to criticizing, if I feel there is a good reason to do so. But I am much more prone to criticizing concepts than to be harsh on a final product. Oh i'll gladly point out design flaws, but shit happens and that will only infuriate me if someone fails to owe up to it. And since I don't know either way I'll reserve judgement for the bent tiles for now (also the tiles shouldn't be able to bend, the truss structure on the back means that a massive amount of pressure should be required to bend the tiles).

Aside from the whole bent tile issue? Well aside from that this may very well be my final battlefield... ok probably not, I really like making boards and terrain myself, but it's still genius and I like it really much. Also take a look at the picture with the entire board laid out. In that picture there are four tiles that may wobble individually but because of the clip system and the stability of the tile system as a whole, it's basically impossible to tell which ones they are.

Now I don't plan to use them quite as such it was more of a cool thing to do, I plan to make two boards. The rolling fields I'll cover in brown and then perhaps some mud (texture paint, kind of like citadels stirland mud though I'll need a cheaper alternative) if I'm not pleased with just the texture the board has and then use static grass applied with something like the flockbox to make it into a real field (if a muddy one), the scrapyard will also get browns and mud (the same browns and mud so they can be combined if needed) but will get no static grass, you see mud is versatile in a way that no other basing is, add a few large flat bases of rocks and grass and you match the rolling fields quite well, but add something with snow and you got a half thawed snowboard, and add some cracked dirt over the wettest looking areas and it's suddenly a desert.

I'm also very interested in getting myself some of the city tiles from tablescapes™ not the ruined city the intact one. A small board of that with some dust tactics buildings and I can have a perfect setting for small rpg battles. But that's ina future where I'm not almost broke.

Next time we'll be reviewing Myth by Megacon Games. Until then have a nice time.

I have returned!

2014-11-23T00:06:00.003+01:00

Hello people it's been a really long time since I last posted anything here, well the thing is loads of things has been happening, my old computer broke and I could not afford to replace it, I also moved since I last updated... twice actually. But once was just to a different room in the same house so it might not count as much. Well now I have a computer again, one of my housemates let me borrow his old mac, I really appreciate it, though macs aren't really my thing, I'm more of a computer guy.

So what has been happening? well the First time I moved I shipped of all my miniatures to my parent house, where most of the stuff still is, in my first room in this commune I live in was simply too small for me to store them of work with them, my new room is much larger and thus I'll when I get the opportunity move most of the stuff back here. But that doesnt mean that all hope is lost, while I still was a wealthy person with a stable income I signed up for a bunch of kickstarters and now about a year later the stuff are finally beginning to arrive (all these mentions will have embedded links as I add the corresponding articles).

I've previously reviewed the Mutant Chronicles Warzone Ressurection kickstarter, and they have now sent me their second wave. I'll go in on more detail on that in a comming post.

I also helped Kickstart Myth, which I'll be reviewing once I've had a chance to properly learn the game (Our first attempt ended with us clearing one tile in three hours).

But the thing I'll review first is the thing that arrived last, yesterday to be specific. The Tablescapes™ * tiles from Secret Weapon Miniatures. I'll post my review of those in the coming hour.

Well see you in a moment.

*The reason I do the ™is because the computer I use now for some reason spout that every time I try to write a @ which annoys me to no end so now when I get a chance to finally use this quirk to my advantage I will, every time I do it's not becuase I care about trademarks but because I'm venting my frustration at the lack of being able to write @. Now of there are any mac users out there who knows why this is happening: Help my Obi Mac Kenobi, you're my only hope!

The twisted dark imagination of video game knock offs.

2014-02-27T00:16:00.000+01:00

In the last few interviews Chris of Modiphius (I'm not doing the umlauts if you're not going to pronounce them anyway) has mentioned that the concept artist for the dark legion is a swede with that dark Swedish imagination (or soemthign similiar). Awesome said I, after all we're the per capita greatest producers of metal in the world, who better to design the dark legion. I was thinking demonic faces screaming jaws and possible even some pagan mysticism (especially in Ilian) and then they started publishign pitures. And this is what we got.

This looks like a licker from resident evil.

In fact the licker is more disturbing because of the tounge.

and the other one

Right me if I'm wrong but isn't that a Protoss?

Close enough if you ask me, sure the Protoss has a more elongated face and larger eyes (more classic grey) but still, they are pretty similiar. And Protoss aren't even villains.

Not that either are bad pieces but after all this talk of the twisted imagination of a swede they give me two video game ripoffs that are neither cool nor scary. I'm a tab bit disappointed.

and the winners are...

2014-02-19T19:32:00.001+01:00

... a total disappointment. Well maybe it's just me but the winners of the poll I mentioned last time are the following

Bauhaus - Noble Officer, Templar, Venusian Ranger
Noble officer is fine, templar is nice, but Venusian ranger? folk you do know you can get 5 of those in a box from Prodos already right?

Imperial - Blood Beret, ISF Field Agent, Wolfbane
ISF agent is fine I guess but both Blood Berets and Wolfbanes will have boxes when prodos release Imperial, why do we need more of those?

Capitol - Luna P.D. Detective, Free Marine, Veteran with attitude
Luna P.D. I can live with but isn't a free marine a veteran with attitude, do we really need both?

Mishima - Ronin, Demon Hunter, Shadow Walker
Ronin are already in warzone, demonhunters are monsters with 4 arms that are slated for release in warzone. and Shadow walkers I can live with but they are also very likely to show up for WZR in time.

Cybertronic - Technologist, Attila, Field Asset
The category of no real choices, technologist sure, no idea what that really is but sure, field asset again very open ended but sure. But Atilla? That's a cuirassier, an AI, and not the data kind or even the terminator kind but the mindless kind. Who would want to roleplay a character without personality?

Brotherhood - Keeper of the Art, Inquisitor, Sacred Warrior
Inquisitor works find, keeper of the art is good, but again Prodos already makes sacred warriors, I don't see the need for another.

But that's just my breakdown. Until next time

Survey from Mödiphiüs regarding miniatures

2014-02-16T04:08:00.001+01:00

Lo folks, yesterday Mödiphiüs (I don't get why they have umlauts if they don't intend to pronounce them anyway, English speakers...) published a survey asking what we would like to see miniature wise from their ongoing Mutant Chronicles RPG 3rd edition kickstarter.

We were asked to pick three of the each cathegory, with the option of writing one in ourselves.
These are the choices my choices are marked in bold other choices I liked are marked in cursive:

Imperial Characters
Blood Beret
Boots & Braces Botherboy
Debutant
Gentleman of the old school
Conquistador
Wolfbane
Trencher
Bureaucrat
Doctor
Entrepreneur
Free Trader
ISC Field Agent
Prodigal
Lawyer
Special Forces
Professor

Bauhaus Characters
Hussar
Kommissar
Thrall
Member of the Esteemed Order
Beerhall Revolutionary
Blitzer
Noble Officer
Venussian Ranger
Etoile Mortant
Pilgrim
Scientist
Magistrate
Diplomat
Homebuilder
Templar
Write in: Noble Airfleet Officer (Still hoping to see them return the awesome star trek reference Luc Piquarde from earlier editions)

Capitol Characters
Sealion
Free Marine
Businessman
Freehold Colonist
Veteran with attitude
Inmate / Prisoner
Media Star
Agent
Politician
Special Forces
Luna Police Department Detective
Reporter

Mishima Characters
Tiger Dragon
Hatamoto Samurai Executive
Shadow Walker
Investigating Magistrate
Shadow Corp Infiltrator
Mercury Webway Rapid Response Cop
Triad Enforcer
Teenage Biker Gang Member
Salaryman
Temple Priest
Demon Hunter
Ronin
Sage
Noble
Ashigaru
Martial Artist

Cybertronic Characters
Chasseur
Armoured Chasseur
Mirrorman
Diana Clone
Administrator
Field Asset
Technologist
Repairman
Cuirassier
Attila

On a sidenote I have to say I found this cathegory dreadfully underwhelming with, 50% of the choices being military, 20% being mindless, and 60% being things that already have miniatures in the Warzone range, and one being freaking maintenance.

Brotherhood Characters
Mortificator
Inquisitor
Trooper
Revisor
Priest in regalia
Advisor
Missionary
Keeper of the Art
Valkyrie
Archangel

My big gripe with the whole deal is that the following entries seems very randomly thrown in there Doctor (Imperial, expected Bauhaus), Lawyer (Imperial), Professor (Imperial, expected Bauhaus), Scientist (Bauahus,expected Cybertronic), Diplomat (Bauhaus, expected Cartel, or it's main supporter Capitol), Luna Police Department Detective (Capitol), Teenage Biker Gang Member (Mishima, expected Capitol) and Administrator (Cybertronic, expected Bauhaus). Note that the expected by no means mean they would only fit in those factions only that it's the best fit I can do, with Bauhaus characters being about athourity and wellfare (Professor, Doctor and administrator), Capitol being about Freedom with it's downside beign crime (Biker) and Cybertronic the only people actually still doing science have the scientist.

But that's just my opinions, you should log in and voice your own.

The Blog had been infested with the Dark Symmetry!

2014-01-28T14:06:00.002+01:00

Ilian mistress of the void commands it to tell you all that the Mutant Chronicles 3rd edition Kickstarter is now live. Here's what that Chris from Moediphius (I think that's the correct spelling) has to say for himself.

Yes I realise that this is primarily a wargaming blog but there may sneak in other stuff from time to time. Now I'll go into elements of what they have done later as for now, I hope to see you in the trenches.

Anglica Drachen... kind of

2014-01-25T11:11:00.000+01:00

Lo folks I finished my version of Angelica Drachen, I decided not to go for the custom sculpted hair at this time but hope to pick up another Angelica later to convert more extensively.

You'll notice I place her far back on the base to get a sense of dynamism.

I switched out her whip for a knife arm from the Etoilies Morant. Also this model is a reminder that while I'm more of an effect guy I can paint detail decently well if I want to.

I went with only a single wash of black over the grey this time, the Vulcan ended up beign so damn black that I wanted to be careful this time around, I'll likely try two coats on a hussar later and if it works I may go back to Angelica Drachen.
Oh btw since Angelica Drachen is a blonde (as I understand it) with a whip this is not actually ministry operative templar Angelica Drachen, but Lady Erin Semora of the noble house of Semora. I'll be adding more back-story on her later on.

But now I have other stuff to do
Until next time folks.

A Sinous Golgotha, and some work on another lady

2014-01-20T20:37:00.002+01:00

Lo folks I promised I'd show you my Golgotha and since I'm finished with her (well she still needs a coat of gloss varnish) the time for that has come, oh and btw this is my first finished Dark Legion WZR mini.

The body is wire and green stuff, and I have to point out that liquid green stuff is a real hero here since it allows you to cover up dents much better than regular green stuff. I cut the legs below the waist to try to retain some femeninity in the figure you'll have to be the judges on if I succeeded. I opted out of the back spines because I felt they made her look like a large facehugger from alien.

I wanted her to look scaled but didn't have any means to actually sculpt scales on her so I painte dher up in bright gold and washed her in greens and browns. Details I painted up in silver and washed in other greens and browns. I then painted the stripe pattern on with gold and washed in first orange then brown (so it wouldn't stick out to much), as usual I'm more of an effect guy than a detail guy.

The claw I washed in orange in hopes I could give it a crab like a appearance not sure it worked. the hair was painted silver and washed several times with brown.
Now on to another lady I've been workign on, that is Angelica Drachen, I've been thinking of sculpting an alternative hair on her, and first of I want to say that I'm in no way displeased with the standard version of Angelica Drachen I just prefer to have my minis unique. Anyway i didnt want to ruin the original head so I tried to make a green stuff mold of her face.

As seen here, now did it work? Not a chance.

The green stuff mold simply doesn't take enough detail, sadly I'm not good enough at sculpting to scult an entirely new head, but I got the idea of sculpting new hair separately and then glue it on if I managed to make it look good. So here's where I am at the moment, I didn't manage to find any good guides on how to sculpt curly hair on the internet so I just went ahead and tried, if the final results work out I'll publish a guide.

Sorry for the bad picture but I'm kind of at the limit to what my compact camera can do, that metal rod is a needle for size reference. The idea is that I'll with a really sharp knife score some more 'hairs' on the hair one it dries then add some loose curls separately.

Well until next time.

The moment has come!

2014-01-19T18:12:00.002+01:00

Lo folks I've finished my first WZR mini, and as you can assume from the headline it's Bauhaus. Here's my Vulcan, the colourscheme is black (actually dark grey) and red with metallics in copper.

The camera doesn't show it well but there's actually a lot of copper detail on his legs.

And from another angle. I painted him first wholly in codex grey then washed once with black was then picked out the metallics in tin blitz, all bauhaus cogwheels in gold and other stuff in mecharite red. Then I washed again with black and finally picked out all lenses and windows in red again and highlighted the edges of the metallics in beaten copper.

And from the front.

I hope to be back with an update on my legion later int eh week but I can't make nay promises, the semester is beginning and I'll have a lot to do.

edit: I also when looking closer realised these are really blurry pictures I'll try to retake them in daylight asap.

Until next time folks.

Review Overview

2014-01-16T10:22:00.000+01:00

Lo folks this is not really an update, I have realised that posting links to all nine pages of the review is going to get old very quickly so I'll make this update a Review overview or hub if you will.

I also want to announce I shall on the request of 'That Austrian guy' write a tenth part of the review where I try to review the rules system.

But here are the first nine parts

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

I'll also add this list to the beginning of each review entry.
Until next time

Some progress

2014-01-11T03:59:00.002+01:00

One finished conversion (which isn't painted yet), one model assembled and slightly converted and one model painted (but not noticeably converted).

Here's the necrobeast rider whom I've finally finished converting.

I'm still not sure if I should perhaps exchange the green stuff hose (is that the right word in this case?) with one made from guitar string.

And another angle.

And yet another angle. The breather is based on the following picture.

Found it in my by now quite extensive archive of pictures I've downloaded over the years.

Max Steiner assembled and slightly converted, the head is facing more to the direction the gun is pointing at and the gun is aiming less down into the ground.

And from another angle.

And here's my first painted mini for this force and no it's not a new mini it's the unholy cannonade.

I painted it metal then washed it several times in different layers of greens and browns, and finished of with painting the barnacles white and washing them to. I think it came out pretty well, though it could perhaps use some sort of spot colour.

And from the other side.

Yeah I know I still need to put up the pictures I use for inspiration, but tomorrow I first have to start on a writers challenge I signed up for with the writing blog. 500-1000 words on someone going on a vacation (ok a few more things but that's the hard part, I don't write contemporary pieces).

Unveiling my new Project

2014-01-10T04:12:00.000+01:00

Lo again folks, three or four days ago (depending on whether you believe it's Thursday or Friday at the moment) I promised you to show you my new project two days later (that would be Wednesday for those starting to get confused) and I didn't. Now those who have been reading this blog are likely not surprised I'm quite good at promising things and not keeping them (like finishing my high elfs like I promised in my very first post), but this is not one of those times. I have decided to unveil this project now. I'll show you pictures and you'll guess what the project is, ok let's start i with the hard pictures.
Aren't I great fun? (What do you mean with sadistic psycho? I'm not! Well not that much)

First Picture for 10'000€ (I'm not actually going to give you any money)
No? then we continue to the next level.

Second picture for 8'000€, you getting there? No? Let's try it again then.

6'000€ No? Come one please folks.

4'000€, Ok well that's all the minis I have on it right now, how am I going to make it easier...

Oh I know

Get it now? Well thank you yeah I'll be making a underwater horror themed Dark Legion army led by my Golgotha seawitch from above. Her tail is made from one of the 'sprues' of resin that my parts came on that I rounded of and then bent with hot water. It still needs some thinnign down so I can sculpt scales on it. The unholy cannonade had barnacles on it.

The basic idea came from this wonderful Chaos Space Marine Plog by Lucky no.5 who hosts the eye of error blog. Now the execution will be quite diffrent, becuase dark legion are generally less armoured than space marines, I'm going to try to more go with a drowned dead vibe than a rusted armour.

The other day I was skimming around the web looking for pictures on sunken ships (that one above amongst them). I'll hopefully publish my findings tomorrow, by the way this is a very strange theme for me cause I utterly loathe sunken ships, other people can't stand blood or skeletons or gore, me I can't stand dead boats. But maybe that's why the horror aspect of it appeals so much to me. Well now I'm going to sleep (and probably have nightmares about shipwrecks) until next time.

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 9: Rulebook.

2014-01-09T23:14:00.002+01:00

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

Lo gain folks, final part of my review of Warzone ressurection. Part 8 is found here.

This time we'll be doing something different, because it is not miniatures or cards this time but the rulebook. Now I have yet to play the game so I will not comment on the actual rules, instead I'll focus on quality design and fluff.

Ok let get going.

This is the Warzone Ressurection Rulebook.

The quality of the book is great smooth velvet cover, nice paper quality and as far as I can tell real binding (unlike my told first edition warzone rulebook where only half the pages are still in place).
All in all it feels more like the artbooks I usually get when buying limited edition games than a a rulebook. That only applies to the quality of the materials though, the content is very much a rulebook smack full of text, both rules and fluff. And the occasional art page.

Design Wise the Book is broken up into seven sections, one for the main part and one for each faction, each with it's own unique page design.

This is the design used for the 'rulebook' part (as well as the fluff part, timelines, and armoury)
It's certainly good looking but it gets better.

This is the design of the Bauhaus pages, Notice the water stamp cogwheel of Bauhaus in the back.

This is the page design for Capitol, with easily recognisable with an eagle and skyscrapers, ah these americans... I mean Capitolliers.

This is the Mishima design.

And Cybertronic

The Brotherhood

And last but by no margin least, the Dark Legion. And this is where I have my first Issue on the book, that font they're suing for the header there they use it for loads of stuff in the book, and when it's smaller it's really hard to read.

Well that's quality and design. now On to my favourite part fluff. We'll start from the beginning, I will not explain the fluff here only changes I feel have been made and if I find them good or bad. It starts of with an explanation of the history of the setting.

Rise of the corporation
And right there is my first issue, the russian federation is said to be the only country that stands against the rise of the federations... ok sure if Russia was still communist but now days it's an oligarchy the closest thing to the corporations of warzone that exists in the present world. But that doesn't stop them from making up the white star federation which seems very communist in nature. Also another Russian faction, yeah! It's not like we have Bauhaus which is 1/4 Russian, or the sons of Rasputin who are Russian, and it's not like we already have six factions who are either european or pan-european (Bauhaus, Imperial, Sons of Raputin, Crescentians, Lutherans and Templars) and that Capitol and Brotherhood also falls under much the same culture. No let's add another. Now as I understand it this isn't Prodos fault as I understand it this is Modiphius' brainchild, but it proves that Paradox has ceased to give a damn about what they approve. There are so many cultures across the globe that could have been used for a faction, maybe a near eastern one (though the crescentians are roughly that), or an African faction, or maybe a native American (either north America or south America) any culture could have risen in the power vacuum. But no let's make it Russia and let's make them communists! That's original. Also they attack the corporations when they set down in the ruins of washington? if they hold all of earth then how can the tribes exist? Well moving on.

The exodus
Adding natural disasters is a good idea, but could use some why there are natural disasters happening at the same time as an economic collapse. Spreading wat Corp did what in the terraforming out is nice.
The bombing of earth I don't know if that's new or not, but also a good part, because it explains why there's absolutely nothing left on it later.
Then the first corporate wars, not much new there, some added detail on the pluto landing, all very nice stuff. Then there isn't anything new in the following parts up until...

Second corporate war
A slight mention of Imperial blaming the kingsfields for shooting down the capitol airsstrike on the citadel of saladin. Not a bad fluff piece but it had a problem, and that is what we'll discuss next.

Most of this background story is lifted directly from the first edition of warzone (which is in turn lifted from first edition of the mutant chronicles rpg), and it's written as a monk chronicling these events yes it's the chronicles of mutant chronicles. It's written in a preaching bombastic style that is very nice. In this incarnation it has however been added to not just in the new stuff i mentioned but stuff that has been part of the story before but been written elsewhere. And this new stuff is written like someone telling his neighbour about last nights game, not at all in the same style.

Contrast
"No longer did the followers of the darkness win easy victories over terrified foes. Now they were met by stiff resistance carried out by determined warriors who knew they where humanity's last hope"
with
"The apostles were revealed as integral parts of this pattern. In essence, each apostle is a sentiment part of of the structure and through it is capable of manifesting physical form"
There are plenty of such examples in this text, sure not all new additions suffer from it, there are some parts that blend in really well, but others that lack the emotional drive tat the original author managed to get across, it's not bad just bland in comparison.

Moving on, let see timeline, very nice no arguments there (aside from the whole White Star federation), and then we're at the faction sections.

Bauhaus
Nothing new (well except the new units) but loads lifted from the RPG Bauhaus sourcebook, very good stuff, very well phrased. I really liked the part about Max Steiner, not sure if it's new or not. I'm not sure I agree with Valerie Duval being described as an 'immaculate beauty', such phrasing just come of as cheap to me I know she has been described as such in some earlier sources but she has also been described by herself as "Not a sweet young girl any more", and a person can be good looking without resorting to fan fiction levels like immaculate beauty. Other than that it's a nice piece. It's nice to see the vast Bauhaus ministry structures mentioned in several stories. I like the part about Golden Lions and Vensusian rangers respecting each other.

Capitol
Again most general stuff is from the capitol sourcebook. Mitch hunter is Mitch hunter, I never managed to like him in the past and not doing much better now. The story about him meeting Pride is nice though, the blurb in character, not the description of it. That along with a blurb in the old Warzone first edition rulebook where Mitch and Bob storms a citadel gives him a smart mouth which makes him much easier to like.
Big Bob Watts seems much the same.
Henry Thomas is a fairly well written character.
Mike Sanders feels like he has a little to much going on, his story could have been elaborated less here and more in some other source later. Also a character being the nemesis of Saladin is a little over the top.
I really like the stuff on the orca about the driver having a miserable job. I hate that the leviathan is described as the end of all tanks when Capitol isn't even supposed to be much of an armour faction.

Mishima
the seven sages part might be new, I think so but I could be wrong, it's really nice to get where the falling out between mishima and the brotherhood came from.
I see that they mention the idea of bushido samurai but it seems no units follow that code any more, my question is "why do they mention it at all?" Why not just retcon it?
I like Nozaki's story especially the part of him meeting Steiner. What I dont get is how the heirs can be afraid of him, even if he controlls lord Moya's teritories on Mercury (because Lord Moya went insane when his son died) Mishima's system is built on the balance of power, that no one heir can defeat both the others, not even the one holding mercury.
I dislike that they turned Hiroko's grand achievement in killing stalkers to killing un-animated bodies. They could have had him kill them over an extended period of time instead of just dumbing it down to a shoot the barrel moment.
The new stuff on the crimson devils is nice. The Kunshu riders are cool but just like many easterners venerate the dragon it would have ben cool if they were held as an embodyment of Ki and thus equal to the samurai rather than below the samurai but above the commoners. Consider the dragons in the 'Avatar: the last airbender' episode 'The Firemasters'.

Cybertronic
Cybertronic stuff has been increased a lot with the whole where cybertronic came from storyline. I wasnt to fond of old cybertronic (warzone takes the Romanticism standpoint to technology while I am a strong believer of the enlightenment view on it) and not much has changed. I'd have loved them to become more ambivalent, not just as technological jerks who conspires for world dominence but at least possible to interpret as the good guys who believe that resuming the technological progress will in fact save mankind (more Data from TNG, and not only Agent Smith from the Matrix). But that goes against the basic premisses of the setting I guess.
The idea tat Cybertronicis the most populous corporation if new I feel is pointless and kind of fits badly with their position of being the smallest Corporation.
The immortal isnt a bad story it just feels like more of the same of what we already had of Cybertronic, it adds very little.
Dr Diana is kind of interesting, i like the part where the clones seem to be lacking something it fits with the in setting idea of their being a soul which the clones lack (and cybetronic has no use for anyway). Which fits Cybertronic in their current incarnation, it adds more than the immortal's story. But still lacks the fresh take I could have really liked.
I'm a little perplexed with the chasseurs being named as the best basic troops where earlier incarnations say that Cybertronic cares little for low value assets and prefer to spend their resources in high value assets. Especially now that they are to most populous corporation it seems strange.
I donä't udnerstand the idea that the Atilla can't react to a situation on it's own, but must be commanded to react, our computers today can do that, why should the advanced AI used by Cybertronic be lacking that ability.
And in the next entry the machinators they claim that the attila AI is capable of acting on it's own and even learning, so which is it? That said I prefer the Machinators version, it seems more Cybertronic.
The scorpion entry again seems to say that the Attila system is flawed and in order for scorpions to be useful they had to be run by chasseurs, so will they make a decision on if the Attila AI can think or not? I however love the idea that these can shift back and forth between scorpion chassis and mechanical legs, that kick ass.
Oh and the best thing in the cybertronic part is the use of metric units in the little story blurb on the Eradicator entry, unlike most of the book that seems to use imperial units (including game play for some reasons, why inches? there's this great unit that's called centimetres that like 90% of the world uses) .

The Brotherhood
Not much new in the faction explanation, again most is from the sourcebooks (which is great).
Dominic's stuff is quite good, I think the mysterious death of his predecessor is new and it's a good addition. The statement that the highest rank is entirly beyond him seems to indicate we haven't retconned the three bothers out of existence. I would still recommend doing this if it's possible to get Paradox to approve it (but since they approved the White star federation I cant see why they would not).
Blessed vestal laura is a nice piece, she is however the third character to see the light and become a beacon of goodness after fighting the dark legion, considering the old stuff says that fighting the legion for to long is more likely to corrupt you it seems strange every other named character became pure by doing it. Not really fussed it's just an overused plot device.
Hamilkar's stuff is nice since it makes Luna larger than luna city. Is he the leader of the entire second directorate though? Is there a single guy in charge of all that? Haven't the brotherhood heard of division of power? I mean it's not like the other directorates have anything to put against a supreme of the second directorate should he try a coup.
Sacred warriors are the same as ever sadly there are no unhelmeted heads for the miniatures considering "they often forgoe the use of helmets" but maybe those will be added later.
I like the idea of jump pack Valkyries let's see some miniatures for those in the future.
The cardiani oblati is an entirely new unit as I understand it, i however don't get what they are the story is very strangely written. maybe it becomes obvious when the miniatures come out.

The Dark legion
The faction explanation contains my favourite new fluff piece, the thing that almost make me forgive the white star federation's existance, and that's the final and utter specification on what was outlawed technology wise by Toth's first edict, the use of microprocessors. I think it's a very nice compromise between the faction saying all computers (like myself) and those only saying AI's. Without microprocessors they can still have punch card computers, but nothing really advanced. Except cybetronic who don't give a damn. The fact that cybertronic has been around for 300 years (and people have been trading with them) when the legion returns account for the existence of powered armour. I also approve massively of Demongonis being made lord of mutation in addition to disease that makes him different from a very similiar being in another famous wargame setting.
It's sad all reference of Alakhai plotting against Algeroth has been dropped. But since it's not contradicted I'm going to assume it's still true.
Golgotha i know very little of, whe wasnt in the RPG and not in first edition of warzone. she still seem to plot against Alakhai, the reference that she does it because she know that alakhai is trying to betray Algeroth seems to have been removed though.
Valpurgis is the same guy as ever, which is nice, they don't need to fix what isn't broken.
I do not approve of the changes to the story of the praetorian behemoth, it used to be the brain of a praetorian stalker infused in the fused bodies of two razides, now it's a extradimenional being summoned from another universe. If it has no link to the stalkers any more why is it still called Praetorian? they took a cool story and replaced it with a stnard story from the dark legion and one that fits Ilian more than Algeroth. Other dimensions is her thing, Algeroth's is the use of dark/necro/black technology.
The necrobeast story also seems kind of strange to me, we know the Apostles were created to destroy the solar system but this story suggests Alakhai has been presentt when the dark soul destroyed another solar system, would that mean that Alakhai is in fact older than Algeroth?
Also a centurion didn't use to be a sort of necromutant. they had similarities yes but a centurion was passable for a human, a necromutant never was. A necromutant is a slave a centurion is just below the nepharites in the favour of algeroth and is generally made from willing cultists. While necromutants are exclusively made from prisoners of war. beign made a necromutant is a horrible thing, being made a centurion is as far as the dark legion views matters a great honour.

And I think that's it there are some minor things I disapprove of, some major (white star federation) and some things i really really like, but mostly there are slight minor improvements all across the board.
If I didnt mention a story or explanation it probably means I liked it but couldn't come up with a more constructive way of saying that than I like this (And I had a fair few of those anyway).

All in all it's a great book, I hope the sourcebooks from the RPG lives up to this quality when they come out, Modiphius should you read this, if you make a this nice book I'll forgive you for the white star federation, deal?

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 8: Miscellaneous Cards.

2014-01-09T02:29:00.000+01:00

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

And we're almost at the end part 8 (out of 9), part 7 can be found here.

It's cards again so it'll work like explained in part 2.

Imperial Doomtrooper Stack
Unit Card Andrew Drougan x1
Unit Card Michael Farraday x1
Strategy Card Imperial Agent of The Cartel x2
Tactical Card Charge x2
Gear Card Graviton Jungle Boots x1
Gear Card In Deidre's Sight x1

Tatsumoto Stack
Unit Card Tatsumoto x1
Strategy Card Mishima Agent of the Cartel x2
Tactical Card A gift of thanks x2
Gear Card Destruction of the tornado x1

And this is not a set list it's a picture of the one bad card I recieved. It's not visible from the back so it's totally usable but I'll see if I can get Prodos to replace it anyway.

Ronin Samurai Stack
Unit Card Ronin Samurai x1
Strategy Card No Honour! x2
Tactical Card Snipe of the Cobra x2
Gear Card Fragmentation Ammo x1

And that's that. In the next Part I'll review the Rulebook, but since it's soon 3 in the morning I'll do it tomorrow... or rather later today. night folks see you in the next part.

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 7: Miscellaneous Miniatures.

2014-01-09T02:14:00.001+01:00

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

Welcome to the 7th instalment in my review of Warzone Resurrection this time dealing with Miscellaneous Miniatures yep that stuff I couldn't fit anywhere else. For the 6th part look no further.

So here we go.

First of we have Mishima Ronin samurau, now these may be the best standard troops in the range, they are absolutely gorgeous. Sadly their swords dont seem to agree with being shipped. Let's look closer at that.

Yep out of three katanas in the box two are broken and it's not exactly like I can pin them. But I'll have a word with prodos about that, of course they can't be blamed for how the Swedish postal service handles their packages, but who knows. On to happier things.

This Is Andrew Drougan, I named him, he is also Michael Farraday I didn't name him. Really nice mini, I prefer the rifle to the chainripper (?) but I have four of them so I'll assemble both versions. No issues with any of my four sets of this guy, I' recomend getting him but since he was Limited edition that may not be so easy.

As was this guy, this my friends is Tatsumoto, he's a tiger dragon doomtrooper. and a really nice mini, i have two or three of him. Going to assemble one I'm thinking flying stand to make it look like he's leaping though the air.

He has some weird pins sticking out if his back though and nothing that seem to fin those, anyone care to shed light on the situation?

anyway we're done with the Miscellaneous Miniatures, see you in part 8 the last card instalment.

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 6: Bauhaus Cards.

2014-01-09T01:53:00.003+01:00

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

Ok so this is part 6 of my Reviewing Warzone Ressurection series, I'm getting really tired about now so if I trail away and my humor sucks that's why, onwards to Bauhaus cards!

Oh and this still works like explained in the second article of this series.

Right about now someone will say Hey that's not Bauhaus cards, and that's quite correct thank you for stating the blatantly obvious. this is the box my minis came in, or well one of three that were taped together. Well the point with this one is that it reads my old address. And I did send a mail to prodos when I moved, fortunately the Swedish postal services figured it out and sent it to the right place... Why do I have a feeling that posting my old address in a picture online is still a very bad idea...

Valerie Duval Stack
Unit Card Valerie Duval x1
Strategy Card Deep Infliltration x2
Tactical Card Life Taker x2
Gear Card Dying Stars x1

Etolies Mor(t)ant Stack
Unit Card Etolies Mortant x1
Strategy Card Barren x2
Tactical Card Flash Bang x2
Gear card Widow's Revenge x1

Max Steiner stack
Unit Card Max Steiner x1
Strategy Card Inspiring Bravado x2
Tactical Card Driven to Exelence x2
Gear Card Battle Scar x1

Venusian Rangers Stack
Unit Card Venusian Rangers x1
Strategy Card Expert Training x2
Tactical Card Vicious Assault x2
Gear Card Superior Equipment x1

Bauhaus Starter Stack
Unit Cards x4
Angelica Drachen x1
Vulcan x1
Hussars x2
Strategy Cards x24

Uranium Deposit x3
Bunker Down x5
Sesmic Disruption x3
Spiraling Costs x2
Field Resources x3
Plasma Shells x2
I am in charge! x2
Pride of Bauhaus x2
Defensive Mode x2
Tactical Cards x19

Arachnid Infestation x3
Venusian camoflage pattern x3
A spoke in the cog x5
Field Rations x3
Assassinate x1
Munitions Change x2
Charge! x2
Gear Cards x18

Medipack x5
Aerial Barrage x3
Air Strike Flare x3
Plasma Grenades x3
Medal of Honour x2
Stick Grenades x1
Chassis Upgrade x1

Resource Cards x8
Fabrik x8

And that's that people see you in part 7 miscellaneous miniatures.

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 5: Bauhaus Miniatures.

2014-01-09T01:03:00.002+01:00

Angelica Drachen, again on a custom base, I may actually field her on this. It's a very awesome model, I kind of wish I had the option of an open hand instead of the whip but you cant get everything. She's kind of smallish on her huge base and other have complained about that, that's the same size base that Alakhai was fielded on, which gives you the feeling for hos big he really is, don't worry I'll post a picture of them beside each other some other day. Myself I feel a larger base is an opportunity, by placing frau (fraulein?) Drachen far back on her base i give her a sense of dynamism that is hard to get a on a smaller base, in this version of it the idea i to have a soldier from another corporation on the ground that he absently without even caring enough too look executes. My other idea is this:

Here she is circling the edge of the base giving the feeling she's circling an enemy waiting for the right time to strike with her whip.

And her alternative head, I went for the unhelmeted one I'll see what I can do with this later.

Here's a Vulcan that I have begun basing, I however have some time getting the basecoat to stick on it, it seems the resin that Prodos uses is hydrophobic and I have unwisely in my youth (ok quite recently as well, what can I say, I'm a cheapskate) diluted my colours pots with water when the chemical solvent in them has evaporated. I don't complain it's my own fault but it's something for other to have in mind.

This is the alternate head for the Vulcan, and as you can see I've already managed to break of the spike on the head. Those spikes are very fragile so I recommend handling Hussars carefully.

Venusian Rangers, Great looking kit except I preferred the old school helmets, the new ones look far to much like necrons. It's also a shame there are no cowled heads in the set.

Max Steiner Hero of Bauhaus, Major of The Venusian Rangers. And generally big cool guy with a really big gun. This guy took old Teddy's advice to heart and carries a really big stick. Unlike Angelica Drachen Max Steiner fills out his base very well, no tricky posturing is needed here just put him on the base and this guy looks like he could stand his ground be it Alakhai or Algeroth himself who's charging him. I especially like the old school Bauhaus Venusian Ranger mask.

Etoilies Mor(t)antes, I hereby renew my appeal to change their names to Etoilies Morantes, still not perfect French but at least closer. Lovely girls, much better since they were redone during the kickstarter. The heads are a bit meh I guess but I guess every girl can't be Anglika Drachen. Some people have complained their punisher knives are fragile, I have not experienced this, there are a few fragile kits in warzone but this is not it if you ask me.

Now this is the true might of Bauhaus, the Hussars, a very nice set I especially like that the weapons are separate from the arms. As I said earlier the head spikes are a bit fragile. Kudos on the two heads with gas-masks I really liked those.

Valerie Duval, At the moment she mostly look like a bit more dramatically posed Etolies Morant

Warzone Resurrection Review Part 4: Brotherhood Cards.

2014-01-08T23:02:00.001+01:00

1. Dark Legion Miniatures
2.Dark Legion Cards
3. Brotherhood Miniatures
4. Brotherhood Cards
5.Bauhaus Miniatures
6.Bauhaus Cards
7. Misc Miniatures
8. Misc Cards
9. Rulebook from a non rules perspective

Part 4 of my unboxing warzone part 3 is found here.

On to brotherhood cards the article will work just like article 2 did with the dark legion cards.

Cucifier Stack
Unit Card Crucifier 1x
Strategy Card Blinding Interference 2x
Tactical Card Exposure of Dark Secrets 2x
Gear Card Crucifier's Battle Focus 1x

Sacred Warrior Stack
Unit Card Sacred Warriors 1x
Strategy Card Emboldened Soul 2x
Tactical Card Implacable Vigour 2x
Gear Card Shield of Light 1x

Inquisitors StackUnit Card Inquisitors 1x
Strategy Card Strike Unto the Darkness 2x
Tactical Card Sanctified Invocation 2x
Gear Card Defiant Against The Darkness 1x

Brotherhood Starter Stack
Unit Cards 4x
Cardinal Dominic 1x
Judicator 1x
Troopers 2x
Strategy Cards 10

Purgation of the Unholy 3x
Explosion of blinding Light 3x
Psychic Aegis 1x
Hallowed Ground 3x
Tactical Cards x47

Righteous Strength 3x
Abolish 3x
Blessed Serenity 3x
Day of Judgement 3x
Bullet of Justice x3
Cardinal's Sacred Guidance x3
Iron will x3
Stone Legs x3
Inspired Charge x3
Bringers of The Faith x5
Cardinal's Prayer of Repentance x3
Sacrament of Absolution x3
Strength of Faith x3
Foresight x3
Call for Glory x3
Gear Cards
Blessed Armour x3
Banishment of Impure visions x3
Resource Cards x8
Cathedral x8

And that's all the brotherhood cards, I have had no issues with these. catch you in part 5 Bauhaus Miniatures.