Dreadball: recently-finished figures

 Introduction

I've been working on some Dreadball figures recently.  As well as some MVPs and coaches/assistants, I'm experimenting with styles of painting for my mechanite/robot team.  See what you think.

The Mechanites

I have a mechanite team for Dreadball.  Indeed, I've had it for quite a long time.  However, until recently it languished in my "lead pile" of unassembled & unpainted miniatures.  This autumn, I'm trying to make some progress on these models and to date I've finished three of them: TRS-80, Commodore and VIC-20.

I'm aiming for a grungy, beaten-up look.  There are a handful of trivial conversions in my builds so far - for example, Commodore wears a yachting cap (who knows where the robot obtained that?).

These models are difficult to build, having a myriad of tiny pieces - all with some form of mould line that needs attention.  That's even leaving aside the game-affecting decisions on which arms/legs/torso/head to put together.

I'm finding them difficult to paint as well; there is a lot of detail on these models - but much of it is quite 'soft' because of the material from which they are made.  The paint jobs I have put on them took some time, yet I'm no happy with the results.  Are they too grungy?  Is the painting too sloppy?  Are the colour choices not good?  I can't quite put my finger on it...

Nightshade

In contrast, I painted Nightshade very swiftly.  From memory, most of the work was completed within a short evening (and alongside other work, at that).  He's a star player with a very shady past, so muted, sombre painting works well.  I'm particularly pleased with the eyes, which were something of an accident.  The whites add a tiny speck of light to what is otherwise a very dark figure.

Blaine

Now here's a coach/sponsor that I started a long time ago (painted the flesh) and then just stalled.  When I eventually decided to do him in a brown trench coat and metallic blue armour, the model was finished very rapidly.  I just wish I had done this long ago, instead of putting it off.  Now that he's finished, I'm quite pleased with the result.

Conclusion

I'm delighted with the way that Nightshade and Blaine turned out.  So why am I unhappy with the robots?  Ah, maybe I'm just my own worst critic, I dunno...

Recently Finished...

Introduction

I know how much my readers like eye candy, so here's a selection of models that I've completed fairly recently.  There's nothing particularly common to them, other than they're all 28mm figures.

Congo

First up is Uguah, the fictional witch doctor who comes with the "Mungo Mah Lobeh" expansion book for "Congo".  He's a seemingly cruel old man but a powerful sorcerer; he provides the main opposition for Mary Kingsley, the explorer upon whose exploits the campaign is based.

Despite his near-naked state, the model is covered with details.  I just wish that they were more visible, as his hunched pose hides much of the work, including the grotesque face that he is pulling!

Next up is a fairly generic lion, also from North Star.  I can never seem to find my existing lion miniature when I need him, so having an extra should help.

Finally (in this section), I have some dugout canoes.  These, like so many of my models, were undercoated many moons ago but only completed recently.  I've added some scratch-built paddles and some baskets (one empty, one containing fish) as I felt the canoes were a bit bare without this.

Dreadball

Here are two more star players for my Dreadball teams:

• The Excavator is a ForgeFather or Brokkr mining robot.  Apparently there's nothing in the rules that says they cannot bring it on to the pitch!
• A'Teo Adysi is an Yndij: a primitive species of hunter from some remote planet.  It seems that his strength and lightning reflexes make him a very good player.

Neanderthals

In our first game of Paleo Diet, all of the hunters were armed with spears.  That's all very well, but perhaps a bit dull.  To fix this, I bought some Lucid Eye Neanderthals to add to the tribe.  Mind you, they're from a different manufacturer and are painted in a different style from my existing Neanderthals so I don't yet know if they'll fit in very well.

One model had a club, so that was fine.  The other two both had spears, though.  I converted one of them into a fire-wielder by cutting down the spear and adding some flame from green stuff.  He's got a flint knife as well, so he'll be all right...

Viridians

I recently stumbled across a Facebook group called Void 1.1 Nexus (not sure if membership is required to see anything much), which is full of enthusiasts for this old game.  They're running a painting competition just now to encourage people to complete old (or new) figures that may be lying around.

Well, I have a very large number of Void 1.1 miniatures lying around, mostly still in packets.  I thought I'd get some out and paint them, without necessarily entering the competition.  Here is the first batch to be finished (and yes, I was persuaded to enter them in the competition after all):

Viridian chain gun on a ground mount

Viridian Commando squad

Conclusion

Well, it's another fairly mixed collection of painted figures; I hope you like them!  Not much more to be said, really...

Dreadball: The Nameless

Introduction

This will be just a short post today, as I only have a few newly-completed models to show.  I'm working on quite a lot of things at the moment, but all the rest of these are only partly completed.

The Nameless

Dreadball has many teams made up from weird aliens, but few are as strange as the "nameless".  For starters, this is an alliance of 3 different alien races rather than just members from a single species, though each form has shared elements that hint at a common origin.  At least, one assumes that they are different races; it's just possible that these are different forms of the same species (for example, juveniles vs mature or male vs female).  That seems unlikely, though!

Whether this is one race or three doesn't really matter, though.  If you're facing them then they present a writhing mass of tentacles, shells and bulging eyes that will give most humanoid species nightmares!

"Sticky" Guards

Unusually, a nameless team has two types of guard.  Firstly there are the "sticky" Undulans.  These have long tentacles that can reach further than most players; once they've got you, it's hard to escape!

The good news (for their opponents) is that Undulans are not especially fast.  But they're probably fast enough to get you all the same...

"Hard" Guards

The other type of nameless guard is the so-called "hard" guard, from the Feromite species.  Imagine a giant crab that has a mass of tentacles instead of legs and you won't be far wrong.

As you might expect from their appearance, Feromites are really tough.  However, the addition of armour around their midriffs suggests that this might be a vulnerable spot.  Good luck with that!

Strikers

Nameless teams don't have any jacks, so their scoring attempts have to be made by strikers.  These guys ressemble a giant prawn to some extent, but there are too many legs and arms (?) for the similarities to be more than passing - and again with the tentacles!

Despite their nightmarish appearance, nameless strikers are distinctly average on the pitch, though they can scuttle about quite quickly.

Colour Scheme

I decided quite early that I wanted to paint these models in colours similar to those of terran squid (for the soft body parts) and crabs (for the shells and claws).  Consequently, the tentacles are a pale blue and are covered with dark brown spots.  The shells are a greenish off-white on the underside and a vivid red/orange on top.

When it came to the armour, I could have chosen almost any solid colour.  However, I realised that none of my existing Dreadball teams wore white uniforms and so I decided to go for the "Star Wars stormtrooper" look.  I think it works quite well, but I'm interested in other people's opinions as well.

Incidentally, in a few cases it wasn't clear whether a bit of the model was artificial armour or was part of the animal's shell.  This is especially the case for the heads of the "prawns".  Obviously, I chose to interpret these head segments as added armour and painted the panels white, but I think it would have worked equally well the other way around.

Conclusion

So, another Dreadball team, ready for the pitch.  But what should I call them?  These models are sold as the "Kalimarin Ancients", but I'd prefer to have my own name.  What about the "Prawn Kings"?  Too cheesy?  Hmm, you come up with something better...

Dreadball: Teams and Cheerleaders

Introduction

I'm on something of a Dreadball roll at the moment, trying to finish painting all the models I have.  Still to go are 3 of my 13 (?) teams:

• Kalimarin Ancients: painting in progress, a few models near completion.
• Fran-Taar Philosophers: undercoated, but nothing further.
• Koeputki Kolossals: still in box, not started.
• 4 spectators: two are complete and the other two are maybe 50% painted.

The end is in sight, at least until/unless I buy more stuff (that commentary-box/event-card-holder looks very nice, though rather pricey).  To give you an idea of my progress, in the last 3 or 4 weeks I have finished two teams and one squad of cheerleaders.  Here they are:

Ukomo Avalanchers

The Ukomo Avalanchers (note: that's Mantic's name for the team, not mine.  I'll give my lot a different name when I can think of one.  So far, my mind is a blank...) are of the Teraton species.  That is to say, they are intelligent, bipedal turtles who can teleport short distances.  Obviously this gives them certain tactical options that other teams do not have!

Teratons are somewhat slow and clumsy, so the team doesn't have any specialised ball handlers ("strikers").  Instead, the team consists of general purpose "jacks" (above)...

...and specialised tacklers ("guards").  I like these models quite a bit, but it is difficult to tell the jacks from the guards.  If you examine the figures carefully and you know what you are looking for then it is possible to distinguish them: the jacks have a ball-launching "Dreadball glove" on their right arms, whereas the guards do not.

However, there's a simpler way that doesn't require an understanding of subtly-different pieces of equipment: the guards are more heavily armoured.  The guards have armoured boots and (most importantly, for recognition purposes) armoured tails, whereas the jacks do not.

In hindsight, I could perhaps have painted more visible marks to distinguish the two classes of player!  However, the effort required to edge all that armour plate was significant and I'm not going to revisit these models with a paintbrush.

The Shining Sentinels

Mantic's earliest robot team was the "Chromium Chargers".  I've decided to name my version differently - and also depart from the "official" colour scheme somewhat.

The Chromium Chargers are robots that can change their role during a game.  Each robot can play as a striker, a jack or a guard, though it takes time to alter from one form to another.  As a consequence of this, all the team models look quite alike.  There are subtle differences if you know what to look for, but having just encountered exactly this problem with my Teratons (above) I decided to use colour to make the roles more obvious.

Consequently, the strikers for the Shining Sentinels have yellow flashes and accents...

...whilst their guards are marked with red.

Finally, the jacks are highlighted with orange.  Presumably, when a robot changes role it has mechanisms to alter the colour of its accents as well as extruding extra armour, forming a ball-handling "glove" or whatever other physical aspects it changes.

I'm quite pleased with the numbering on the robots' backs.  The digital numerals are not exactly high tech, but they were somewhat easier to paint than many of the alternatives might have been.

The Nice Girls

I now have 2 sets of cheerleaders for Dreadball.  This squad of 4 is one I painted up some time ago, but I don't think I've shown it before.  Since I will be describing the other, newly-finished squad below, I thought it would be worth comparing with these.

"The Nice Girls" is my temporary name for this group of four cheerleaders, until I come up with something better.  These plastic/resin models depict four wholesome young women dressed in short shorts and wearing a form of halter top.

Each cheerleader has 2 large "shields", one attached to each arm.  I imagine these to be high tech devices, probably with LED or similar technology that would allow them to change what they display.  The possibilities are enormous; they could spell out words, show fireworks or other patterns, or have "cascades" where a logo or message moves from one shield to the next along the line.

Of course, my imagination is rather greater than my ability to paint any of these concepts, so I coloured them all white and added a simple "star" decal of my own design.

The Punkettes

Mantic produce another set of cheerleaders; these are definitely not the nice "girl next door" sort.  They're dressed in a variety of spikey, probably leather gear and one of them even has a knife down the side of one boot.

These cheerleaders also have devices on each arm to help with their work.  In this case, they look like cast iron ovals, though they're probably make of lightweight composites instead.  In the centre of each oval is a strong, brightly-coloured light.  I guess that these could be strobe lights, thus allowing the Punkettes to produce a form of mini-disco within their routine.

As with the "nice girls", I've decided to use a different base colour for each model.  Obviously, since there are only 3 figures in this set there is no "yellow" variant.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it: more Dreadball figures.  If these aren't your thing then don't worry - I'll be onto something different very soon.  My interests are many and varied...

DreadBall: Saturday Matinee game

 andIntroduction

Yesterday, my friend Steve came round and we spent the day gaming.  There was a bit of  talking and eating as well, but mostly it was gaming.

What did we play?  Well, we started with Congo, where the McCoy and Glover white men expeditions faced off across a crocodile-infested river.  Then we had our first two games of Paleo Diet.  All I'm going to say about this for now is that there were mammoths; more on this another time...

Finally, we filled the last part of the day with an introductory game of Dreadball (using the Version 2 rules).  This was introductory in the sense that Steve hadn't really encountered the game before, whereas I have played quite a few games.  This is what happened...

DreadBall

This isn't going to be a blow-by-blow account of the match, as that would take far to long to write (and would probably be quite tedious to read as well).  Instead, I'll mention some of the highlights and low points.

Starting positions: both teams are playing a zone defence.

Steve is playing the Orks and Goblins: the Mean Green Team.  They're in the red armour, at the far end.  For those who don't know DreadBall, the team consists of 2 types of player:

• Ork guards are strong and tough; they're very good at stomping things.
• Goblin jacks are fairly average ball carriers.  Being jacks, they are also quite fast and are theoretically capable of slamming an opponent (though in reality, I wouldn't generally advise it).

I chose the Judwan team who are dressed in dark green armour; I don't yet have my own team name for them.  The Judwan are humanoid aliens with exceptionally long limbs.  They are also notable for being pacifists and refusing to injure anyone deliberately.  The team consists entirely of:

• Judwan strikers: good ball handlers, but only wear light armour and are rather fragile.

The Plays

Early in the match, one of my strikers grabbed the ball, ran up the sideline, dodged around all the goblins and threw the ball on target for a 3-point strike.

Score: +3 to Judwan

One or two rushes later, an Ork guard decided to do some marauding.  He charged down a defender and hit the poor Judwan full on.  In the slam, the Ork scored 7 successes (rolls of '6' count as a success and grant a re-roll, thus allowing the possibility of extreme results on rare occasions).  The Judwan dodged poorly and came up with just 1 success.

7:1 isn't just a loss, it's a catastrophic loss.  The poor defender took 6 hits to armour, failed to make very many saves (unsurprisingly) and was consequently smeared across the neodurium and removed as a casualty (damage of 4 or more cannot be recovered during a match).

Following this removal of the Judwan, a goblin jack ran in to score 1 point in the now-undefended strike zone.

Score: +2 to Judwan

Right, my response had better be fairly decisive.  Shortly after this, my star player ran the ball from deep inside my half up to the centre line.  I don't normally do passing plays, but this time I felt lucky.  The striker threw the ball to a waiting Judwan player, who then ran down the pitch to score in the highest-value zone: a 4 point strike and multiple fan checks!

Score: +6 to Judwan.  Note that the game ends as a landslide victory if either side manages to move the score to 7 points in their favour.  I was very close to ending the game early in this manner, but not quite there yet.

Now for something that I hadn't thought through properly.  As soon as a strike is scored, a new ball is launched automatically along the centre line.  The ball is small, hard and fast - a bit like a cannonball, really.  I expect you can see where this is going...

My star striker was standing on the centreline and therefore took a 5-dice hit from the newly-launched ball.  Fortunately he didn't have his back to it, but unfortunately his dodge still wasn't quite good enough to avoid injury; he had to leave the pitch for treatment.  D'oh!

The goblins responded quickly, using Slippery Joe (their star player) to pick up the loose ball and run in an easy 1-point strike.

Score: +5 to Judwan

OK, let's end this.  The Mean Green Team have left their deep strike zone uncovered (their guards were busy trying to hurt a solitary Judwan striker, who kept managing - just! - to dodge out of the way.

A replacement striker ran on for the gangly aliens, thus freeing up one of the existing defenders to run the length of the field.  A careful combination of action cards and coaching dice allowed him a good shot at goal; his throw was spectacularly on target: 4 points!

Score: +9 to Judwan: game over with a landslide victory in rush 10 or 11 (I forget exactly which).

Conclusion

This was a decisive win for the Judwan, but remember that their coach (me) was considerably experienced, whereas the Mean Green Team were run by a novice.  I think that the difference came in two ways:

1. Steve played quite conservatively, frequently using 2 actions to achieve (safely) what might have taken only 1 if a little risk was accepted.  For example, for a player to Dash 1 hex if they are not quite in the desired position at the end of their move is not a huge risk, but it might take a few games before a coach understands the cost/benefit ratio of such a decision.
2. On a tactical level, a novice player may not recognise the best moves for their players, either to disrupt an opponent's attack or to facilitate their own.  DreadBall rewards those who think ahead at least one or two rushes and positions their models accordingly.

So, I'm feeling a bit guilty at administering such a drubbing to a new player, though in my defence I did try to advise on tactics as well as rule interpretations.

In any case, the Orks are probably quite happy, as they did manage to send one opposing player to the morgue!

Heroes of the Neodurium

Introduction

I've been playing a few games of Dreadball recently.  Dreadball 2 came out at the start of the year and we're finding it to be a distinct improvement; games are fun!

With that in mind, my model-making has been directed towards reducing some of the pile of unpainted miniatures that I have for this game.  At the last count, I had 4 unbuilt teams and a number of stars ("Most Valuable Players"/MVPs), plus some auxiliaries such as fans and cheerleaders.

The MVPs seemed like a good place to start.  Since each was an individual, any one figure wouldn't take long to paint and I ought to be able to finish a few quite quickly.  Here's the tally so far...

Rico van Dien

From the manual, Rico is "handsome, well-educated and hugely rich".  He's a show off, loved by the crowd for his showboating style.  Rico also has perfect teeth...

I've painted Rico in the colours for my human corporation team (the "Sky City Slammers"), but of course his armour is rich and glittery compared to their much more modest blue & silver.

Galdo

Galdo is a rather foolish Kraaw with massive gambling debts.  Some underworld boss has decided that the best way for him to repay these debts is by starring in Dreadball matches, where he will either earn riches or perish miserably.  Either way, the criminal underworld will have extracted its revenge...

In Dreadball 2, Galdo is listed as captain of the Rebs team.  However, since I don't have that team (and have no real intention to obtain it), I'll use him as a regular MVP who can be hired by anyone.

Lyra the Fixer

Lyra is an ex-assassin who enjoys the "legitimate" violence of a Dreadball match.  She's fast, nimble and vicious!

It's not clear to me what species Lyra represents.  Her protruding face and the large claws on her feet suggest something alien, but she could just about be a modified human instead.  Like much else about her, this seems to be shrouded in mystery.

Asylum

In the past, Asylum has been treated for homicidal, drug-induced rages; he's now allowed back onto the Dreadball pitch.  It seems that remnants of his old personality still exist, though: his style of playing is distinctly aggressive!

Most humans who play Dreadball have full armour suits.  Asylum just wears a mask...

Alo-Khan

What's an Asterian war robot doing in Corporation space?  Well, its personality banks have been fused with the memories of a Kalyshi rebel and now the authorities look the other way and let it play Dreadball.

It's fast and nimble, but Alo-Khan is still a war machine at heart.  Sometimes it forgets that this is just a game...

Number 88

An enigma wrapped up in a mystery and served up as a puzzle?  All that anyone knows about Number 88 is that he/she/it is an incredibly fast and agile striker.

Eko'o

Eko'o is a Yarasa hunter, kidnapped by a Corporation team from his primitive home world and forced to play Dreadball for the amusement and titillation of the masses.  Just don't expect him to be happy about it (and don't turn your back on him, either!)

Buzzcut

Buzzcut is an ogre, in every sense of the word.  He's huge, savage and sadistic.

I've painted Buzzcut in a vaguely "rugby union" style; he looks a bit like a caricature of a prop forward.  I suppose that I was channelling the rugby players from "Asterix in Britain" at the time...

Blitz

Blitz is a Fyrit; a four-armed, hot-tempered bipedal lizard.  With all those extra limbs, he's especially good at pummeling opponents.

Conclusion

I'm quite pleased to have finished off all these MVPs reasonably quickly.  The individuality of each model meant that I didn't become too bored, as might have happened for a large group of identical figures.

You may have noticed that I've used clear perspex hexes for the bases of these figures.  Obviously, this has required cutting the models from their original bases.  In a few cases I am a bit concerned about the new joints, especially where there are few/small contact points between the model and the pespex.  However, on the whole I consider this to be very successful and I plan to base all my Dreadball teams this way from now onwards, though I probably won't rebase my existing teams.

I expect we'll be playing a few more games in the near future.  If we limit ourselves to one MVP per team per match (seems reasonable) then it will take quite a few games just to try out this lot - let alone the others that I have still to complete!