Zomtober 2015 - Week 4

<--  Week 3 is this way

Introduction

It's week 4 for Zomtober 2015; the last week of the event this year (it is the last week, right?  The 31st is a Saturday and the Zomtober week ends on a Sunday, doesn't it?)  So here's something slightly different.  It's still a duel, in the sense of one survivor base against one zombie base.  However this time I've chosen to build a "horde base" rather than just a single zed.

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark...

This week's survivor is "Ola".  She's a stylishly-dressed, young, African-American woman who can't quite believe whats happening to her.  Indeed, she's trying to shut out the sight by covering her eyes (I had intended for the hands to be covering her mouth, but I mis-positioned the arms before attaching the separate hands).  Ola's body and head are standard pieces from a Wargames Factory set, but the arms and hands are heavily-modified parts from all manner of sources.

The zombies are, I think, some sort of dance troupe.  Their leader (I'll call him "Jacko") is also dressed up for a night out.  In this case, he has a red suit with black trim and shoulder panels, white socks and black shoes.  The torso for this figure is from a Studio Miniatures plastic zombie and the legs are from Wargames Factory.  Green stuff has been used to lengthen the trousers and add the jacket decoration.  After sealing the base, I applied gloss varnish to his hair and the black parts of the jacket to make them really shiny.

The other 5 zombies on the base are also plastic Wargames Factory/Studio Miniatures mash-ups.  In each case, the bodies and heads are unmodified, but the arms have been considerably altered to get them into the classic "zombie advancing" position.  Note also that these "supporting" zeds have been painted in somewhat muted colours so as not to draw the viewer's attention away from their leader.

The base is from Escenorama; I've discussed them before: here.  Suffice it to say that it was a hellish job to cut the base down to size (it was too thick to start with), but that it's a really nice moulding otherwise.

Conclusion

So here's what I think: Ola believes that she's having a nightmare and that she'll wake up any moment now to find that this isn't happening.  Maybe she's right.  But even if this is the stuff of nightmares, who says that the real world is any better?

Mind you, I think that the zombies are spending so much effort trying to match their dance steps that they aren't really paying attention to Ola.  Maybe they think that she'll be mesmerised into standing where she is rather than running away (like any sensible girl would do)?

Zomtober 2015 - Week 3

<--  Week 2 is this way

Introduction

Another Sunday, another Zomtober challenge entry.  Will the madness never stop?

Naw, it's all right really; I'm loving it!  I've probably painted more miniatures this month already than I did in the previous 3 months put together - and they're not all zombie-related either.  For Zomtober this week, we have an old mini that I've finally finished (after it had been on my workbench for what seems like years) as well as a brand new figure, built from start to finish in the last 10 days or so.

The Duel

Once again, I shall present a duel between a survivor and a zombie.  This time, the confrontation is between Father Murphy and Garden Party Zombie (hereafter "GPZ").

Father Murphy is an out-of-the-box build from the Wargames Factory "Apocalypse Survivors: The Men" kit.  I glued this model together many months ago and started the painting, but didn't get very far before I ran out of inspiration.  He seemed to be just another fairly bland, assault-gun-wielding, trenchcoat wearing action guy and that didn't excite me enough to complete the model.

As part of this Zomtober challenge, I looked at the figure again.  It suddenly came to me that a black shirt and a white dog collar would turn him into a priest.  Suddenly, the model had a completely different vibe!

GPZ is a "Zombie Vixen" (again, from Wargames Factory).  She's had a hat added from a Warlord Games set of Royalist Infantry, although I think it's sitting a little bit high on her head.  It seems that straw hats were all the rage for 17th century English peasants as well as for modern ladies...

Her base is made from a Basius II pad, though all of it apart from the fallen sign has been covered with flock.  The lettering on the sign is a home-made decal.

GPZ has been in the wars a bit; she has torn clothing, significant wounds to her leg and one arm is partly missing.  For all that, she is (was?) a tall, if somewhat skinny woman and probably has a certain amount of physical strength.

Who will win this encounter?  Father Murphy has obtained some heavy weaponry from somewhere, but does he know how to use it?  He's firing from the hip (never a good sign) and he seems to be aiming at her torso.  Whilst a burst from an M-16 will certainly chew up a zombie badly, it won't finish the job without a head shot.  Does he know what to do and is he capable of executing it?

On the other hand, GPZ looks somewhat surprised to find that she is indeed a zombie.  If she has any remnants of her previous humanity left then she might be too well bred to chow down on the vicar, at least at first.  How will this end?  I'm not sure...

Week 4 is this way -->

Zomtober 2015 - Week 2

<--  Week 1 is this way

Introduction

OK, so it's the end of the second week in October.  I'm taking part in the Zomtober challenge again and therefore I need to show at least one completed zombie or survivor.  Once again, I intend to present a duel and see what my readers think are the possible outcomes.

Joey vs Hot Chick Zombie (HCZ)

Let's start with Joey.  He's a plucky boy, probably about 10 or 12 years old.  The model is from Wargames Factory's "Apocalypse Survivors: The Men" plastic set, but with a couple of small changes.

Firstly, I've given him a baseball cap.  This was very simple: I cut the cap from one of the spare adult heads in the same set, cut off the top of the boy's head and glued the two pieces together.

Secondly, Joey is wielding a super soaker (a large water pistol, for those readers who don't have their own children).  This was scratch-built by cutting down the weapon on the boy's submachine gun arm and then adding plastic rod & modelling putty.

The painting on this model was very simple, though I tried to contrast the bright, plastic colours of his toy gun with the muted camouflage of the cap.

Why "Hot Chick Zombie"?  Well, if you'll pardon the apparent sexism, she's on fire!  The zombie is not totally consumed in flames, but does have something flammable burning in patches along her left-hand side and dripping on to the ground.  Whatever set light to her may also have destroyed her foot and hand, as these are missing, as is the left side of her face.

The zombie model is again from Wargames Factory, though this time from the "Zombie Vixens" set.  She's an out-of-the-box build, though with some green stuff "flames" added to leg, arm, hair and base.

Incidentally, the bases for both of these models are moulds from my Urban Basius II pad, though from relatively plain areas without much relief detail (these were tester pieces).

So, what is Joey doing?  Has he loaded his super soaker with gasoline, hoping to use it as a crude flamethrower?  Perhaps he's filled the toy with something caustic and intends to blind HCZ by squirting the fluid in her remaining eye?  Or is he just living in a fantasy world where squirting water over a playground foe whilst shouting "pew! pew!" is enough to win the game?

Given what I know of water pistols (they're inaccurate, have very short range and leak constantly), I really don't think that either flammable or corrosive liquids would be a good choice.  Equally, water isn't going to bother the zombie for long.

No, I think that Joey's only advantage here is that the zombie is considerably damaged and will probably be unable to move quickly, if at all.  Run, Joey!  Run!

Week 3 is this way -->

Zomtober 2015 - Week 1

Introduction

It's Zombtober again (see Brummie's Wargaming Blog if you don't already know what Zombtober is)!  This will be my 3rd Zombtober and, as in 2014 and 2013, I plan to present a series of "duels".  Each week I'll show a new survivor and a new zombie, together with a short description of their current situation.  The question then is "what happens next?"; anyone can join in with opinions or theories.

B.A. vs "Little Girl Zombie" (LGZ)

For week 1, I've finished painting a couple of models that were not-quite-complete after the "Big Tidy".  These figures have been hanging about on my painting desk for a very long time, so Zombtober was the perfect reason to finish them.

"B.A." is, of course, based on the character of B. A. Baracus from the television series "The A-Team", as played by Mr. T (do none of these people have real names, rather than just initials?).  The model is from Foundry's SV037 "B Team" pack.  The figure is a little wooden in pose and I feel that the sculpting is a bit soft (especially of the face), but it is a very recognisable miniature and I'm happy to have it in my collection.

The little girl is, I think, from Studio Miniatures - though their website is down right now and I cannot verify this.  She's been in the wars a bit: her face (especially around the jaw and mouth) is all smashed up and she also has a gaping hole in the side of her torso.  However, she's still clutching her doll.

I painted the doll as a simplified version of "Upsy Daisy", from the popular kids TV series "In the Night Garden"; it seemed as good a starting point as any other.

I have no doubt at all that on an average day B.A. could overpower LGZ physically very easily, either by shooting her or in melee - it's just no contest!  However, I do wonder if his heart is in the job?  B.A. looks a bit vacant; he's either staring at something in the distance or he's lost in thought.  Either way, he's distracted.

If his head isn't in the game then LGZ might be able to bite B.A., though with a smashed jaw even that could be tricky.  No, I think that LGZ's best chances are either to freak out the big man by standing and staring at him, or possibly by moaning loudly enough to attract a pack of adult zombies.

So, who wins?

Week 2 is this way -->

Carronade 2015 - A Grand Day Out

Introduction

Yesterday was the date for Carronade 2015, the annual wargames show that is put on by the Falkirk District Wargames Club.  I had never been to Carronade before, believing despite all the evidence that it was a very small, local show which wouldn't really have been worth the travel time.  How wrong I was!

Travel

My younger son (A.) had expressed a desire to go with me to Falkirk and I had told him the previous night that he'd need to be up in plenty of time.  As it was, I had to rouse him from his bed, though we still had plenty of time to catch the train from Helensburgh.

We changed from the local train at Glasgow Queen Street station and were fortunate enough to walk straight on to the inter-city just as it was about to leave.  The itinerary I had printed off suggested that we wouldn't make this connection and would have to wait 15 minutes for the next train, so that was a bonus for us!

From Glasgow Queen Street to Falkirk High was only a short journey of 20 minutes or so.  It took us slightly longer than this to walk from the station in Falkirk to the show venue in the local high school.  During our walk, A. talked nonstop about Warhammer 40K.  He and some friends have started playing small games at lunchtime in school once a week and he has visions of collecting and building at least 3 or 4 armies, if I understood correctly!

The Games

We arrived at Carronade marginally before the show's official start time, but the entrance was already open and so we didn't have to queue.  It was immediately obvious from the site map that this was quite a big affair - I think there were 5 halls in use.  At least, we visited 5 rooms during the day; if there were more then we missed something!

Malifaux

Malifaux: my crazy doctor, creepy assistants and undead creations (bottom and left) vs. A.'s weird spiritualist, grey-suited bodyguards and pink, ethereal spirit hosts (top and right).  All these models were very nicely painted indeed.

 The very first thing that we stumbled across (and were invited to participate in) was a game of Malifaux.  Sadly, I forgot who was demonstrating this game; my apologies to our very helpful hosts!

So, I took a mad doctor and his entourage, whilst A. commanded a very refined-looking type of juju man and the possessing demons that he had summoned.  All very odd, but although A.'s leader reached the magic hat that was the objective first, I wiped out all of his supports before he could escape with this treasure.  Then my extremely powerful doctor took on the spiritualist one-to-one and slaughtered him.

This was the first time that I'd played Malifaux.  My general impression is that there is a great deal of (very creepy) imagination in the figures and the setting.  If you like that kind of thing then this will be heaven!  However, the rules didn't particularly impress.  Whilst the mechanism for using cards rather than dice (and being able to "cheat" by playing a card from your hand to override a drawn one) was well enough, the combat system and the special rules for each character seemed immensely complex.  Each character card was dense with very small text, so perhaps not really suitable for casual, pick-up games.

Warpack

We were treated to a demo game of Warpack, a fantasy mass battle game by Prince of Darkness Games.  The main twist to this seems to be that each unit and each character is assigned a card every turn that details their melee, magic, missile and/or defence value.  No dice are involved; the values on the unit's card are used for the entire turn.

In our game, my Orcs were thoroughly shot to pieces by A.'s superior Wood Elf archery.  My depleted hobgoblin cavalry did manage to wipe out a cavalry unit with a flank attack and to run down an elven hero, but it wasn't nearly enough.

I'm not at all convinced by the diceless approach to games.  What we were left with was a completely predictable combat resolution; once a unit's combat card had been revealed then all enemies knew whether it was worth attacking them that turn or whether they should direct their efforts elsewhere.  That was married to a very traditional command/move sequence, where every unit could be moved at will up to its maximum distance each turn.  Maybe I just didn't "get it", but I don't think I'll be playing this again.

Lunch

As at a number of other wargames shows, the hot food on offer was basically chips.  Yes, it was possible to put other yellow/brown food in the same dish (pie, burger, baked beans...), but there wasn't much outside of this genre.  To add insult to injury, it was quite expensive.  I keep hoping for better from school kitchens, but I'm continually disappointed.  Why, oh why can't I remember to take my own packed lunch to these events?!

Escape from the Robot Planet

 In the afternoon, we started to make some purchases on our rounds of the show.  We visited the Crooked Dice stall, where I talked with Graeme at some length.  More on my purchases later...

Just as we were about to move on, A. looked at a side table with some tiles and a deck of cards and said "Is that a demo game?"  It was and so we were offered a 3-player run through the work-in-progress "Escape from the Robot Planet".

In this game, each player had to run from tile to tile, seeking for the exit that would allow them to escape.  Cards could be played as either assists to the player's character or as hindrances to someone else, so there was a bit of tactical thought needed when choosing which effect from the card to use.  I took great delight in playing a card to swap my hand with Graeme's, just after he had used a card to search through the deck for something he wanted!

Eventually, both A. and Graeme found the exit tile, whilst I was stranded at the other end of the board about as far away as possible.  My card play to prevent Graeme from winning unwittingly left the way open for victory by A. instead, so my boy was pleased.

Overall impression: this was quite a fun little side game.  Obviously it's still under development and the balance of card types might not be quite right.  There seemed to be much backstabbing between the players, whilst the robots were all but bystanders; they didn't play much part in the game.

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim.  Swordhead (?) in the centre has just ripped off Gypsy Danger's left arm

We had been eyeing up a very popular Kaiju game all day, but it was only at 2:30pm that we managed to participate.  Even then, there was only 1 slot, so A. took control of the Jaeger "Gypsy Danger" and I sat behind to advise.

Initially, 2 of the 3 monsters were submerged; they surfaced together to sandwich Gypsy Danger and one of them immediately tore an arm off the mech.  However, the Russian and Japanese mechs came to our assistance and ganged up on Swordhead, eventually overpowering the beast.  That left the damaged Gypsy Danger facing Leatherback (?) one-on-one.  Both combatants took damage, but once we figured out that we had a chainsword and elbow rockets, we hammered the creature again and again.  By the time the kaiju died, Gypsy Danger was fairly beaten up and had lost power in a leg as well as having massive dents in the torso.  So, another win for our side!

Shopping

No show report would be complete without the loot picture.  Note that this is just my stuff; A. got some half-price Tau pathfinders for Warhammer 40K and some even more heavily reduced Magic cards.

So, what did I buy?  A scenario book for 1809 Austrians vs French, more varnish, a second hand Dreadball team, some 28mm highland cattle, X-men dice, a bunch of 40mm Greek Peltasts (I intend to use them as giants to face my 28mm Argonauts) and a Crooked Dice transit van.  This last will end up as the Mystery Machine, if all goes well.

Put together on the table like this, it doesn't look like much stuff.  It cost enough, though!

Conclusion

Will I go to Carronade again?  You bet I will!  It's simpler for me to get to than any of the other Scottish shows and it's easily big & varied enough to satisfy my needs for a day out.  My only regret is that we didn't have as much time as I might have liked to look at all the other games which were being displayed!