Off to a Rocky start!

So having completed the Zuzzy rocks, it was onto some of the foam built ones I've cut with my foam wire cutter.

There are a lot of great Youtube videos of people making these & are well worth the watch for ideas.

 As I started working on them I figured I would do a step-by-step of my own with the colours I chose. For these larger ones I used scrap pieces of Pink insulation foam.

 Originally I was going to mount them on CD's, but then I thought...why? The goal of these was for use in Rangers of Shadow Deep & many other various games where large rocks were needed to cut down on LOS

So after painting them with black gesso, it was on to the base Ash Gray. The goal is not to completely cover the black with the gray, as you want the deep recesses to remain dark.

This is followed by scrubbed on patches of Burnt Umber. Definately using dollar store brushes for all of this scrubbing & stippling.

 

Next was the Burnt Sienna, which is scrubbed on sparingly. The colour looks good for where there may have been oxidizing iron bits within the rock formation.

Lastly my favorite edging colour, Sand, to touch up the edges & dust across the larger patches.

 

And here they are completed for today. I did make 1 spire version & will likely make some more of these, which I intend to paint in Desert sand colours.

 

Of course we needed a figure for scale image.

 

Then it was onto some small rock faces that were emerging from the earth. These were made with the usual white packing foam, which isn't as durable as the pink.

 

I covered these ones with Mod-Podge to hopefully make them more durable after painting them grey. I guess once they are on the table & tumbling dice roll over them, we will know if it worked.

 

So that ended my hobby session for today. Thanks as always for visiting.

 

 

Going a Little Over-board!

 These past few weeks, I've been going through a bit of a painters block. No desires to grab a brush & dab some paint.... so instead I've spent some time getting some other things done in the basement.

To start, I have the luxury of access to a large format plotter & took advantage of some of the maintenance to plot off some various gaming mats to get the inks flowing through them after the 2 years of sitting they went through during the pandemic.

 

These mat patterns are all from one of the 3d printing Patreons I follow - Unit 9. Every couple of months they add some new themes to the monthly files.

 

I mounted them on the many pieces of foamcore that were saved from going to the dumpster at work.  These have been sitting about for some time & I wanted to start using them. I know others have had these printed on vinyl or mousepad material which can be rolled, but I wanted to keep it cheap...for now.

 

The mat files are offered in several sizes (2'x2', 3'x3', 4'x4') so I chose the ones I could manage with the minimum of fuss & taking into account having to store them afterwards. So now I have Cyber City, Hangar Bay, Wasteland & Underworld themed boards built.

 

I hope to use them in Stargrave & 5 Parsecs from home depending on the size of battle & number of players.

 

Overall I am quite happy with them. 

So next it was time to knuckle down & get working on some sci-fi looking rocks for our upcoming Stargrave game. It was then I found the box of a bunch of Lava type rocks I had purchased from Zuzzy many years ago.

 

I wanted to make them usable in more than just sci-fi..so stuck with traditional colours more or less. 

 

There were also several that had volcanic lava streams emerging from them, so I tried my hand at doing that...yes it took a couple of attempts & a couple of Youtube watches to get the 'Lava' to where it looked somewhat realistic.

So now I've got some more rocks on the paint table, but these are foam ones I've been dabbling with & hope to get them done Sunday.

I apologize for being absent from the blog these past few weeks, but we all go through these phases & its always great to be getting back into the groove!

 

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

EWG - Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps

Tonight we had 2 games running at the club. Jonathan brought out Thunder Alley, which he & Scott played.

The other 5 of us played Aliens: Another Glorious  Day in the Corps.

 

This was the first time I got to play this game. Dan ran it for us, with his wonderfully painted figures. All of the Movie characters are there as options to run, each with their own special abilities.

 

I played Cpl Hicks.

 

As we entered, our mission....find Newt & get her off the table. How hard could it be?

 

Apart from Dan, none of us had ever played, so we didn't really grasp all the card mechanics. It wasn't until mid-game we discovered that event cards could be played at any time (with the exhaustion of cards)

 

Each time you perform various actions, it uses cards which are moved from the Ready Pile, to the Exhausted Pile & finally to the Discard Pile. So for example, firing your Pulse Rifle would exhaust a card. If you fired again, another card is exhausted.

To say it got out of hand quickly would be an understatement...."Game Over Man!" 

However we all enjoyed the game & look forward to giving it another play now that we have figured out the mechanics. Thanks Dan for bringing it out! 

EWG - Bloodborne the Card Game

As I watched the club event post to see if anyone would step up to run an event....Monday came with nothing but Crickets. So I scanned my shelves for a game that would be club worthy (quick to learn, has several players & doesn't take long to play)

This week I chose Bloodborne the Card Game

 

After watching a How to Play (can't say enough about how great these can be, especially with heavy rulesets), I got all the cards sleeved & ready

 

In the game you play a Hunter who teams up with other hunters to enter the dungeon slaying the many funky creatures that dwell within, on your way to defeat the Final Boss.

Your player board is used to track the blood echoes you've received as well as stored. You also track your trophies from you kills.

 This is where it gets more involved....even though your 'working' together, your also going for bragging rights of having the most Blood & trophies, using some of your abilities to thwart the other hunters. There are weapon upgrades - like the cannon -  that will actually damage every other hunter.

Each of the monsters within have variable abilities, hit points & what colour of damage dice they throw. After working your way through (normally) 10 lesser critters (3 bosses, 7 normals) you engage the final boss. I think we all enjoyed the game & I've now added the expansion for the next time we play!

Thanks for visiting. 

Core Space - Salvage Run

So I was finally....after getting the original Kickstarter back in.....a long time ago, I was finally able to play Core Space.  I had gotten the figures painted for 5 crews & then the Pandemic hit.

Kurt & I played a game of Salvage Run. After choosing our 3 member crews to hit the warehouse, we were out of the airlocks & spreading out on the hunt for loot!

We started on the opposite corners & I drew the first player turn.

 

I chose Arianna as my Captain, with Gak & Trigard to accompany her.

 

Kurt went with Sondar, Chit Chit'ah & Hunter (he had a jive for playing alien races)

 

With little resistance (well 1 single shot from Butler before he ran off) Chit gets to the first chest & tears it open.

 

Arianna with her extra mobility also scored a small crate.

 

Hunter explains to Butler that he is indeed taking whats inside the box.

Gak opens a larger container & finds a Rare Pistol.

A look at the items snagged from the crates thus far

 

The Purge begin to arrive...well a lone Harvester thus far.

As the Harvester moves past, Trigard makes a run for the ship

 

Gak exterminates the Purge Harvester.

 

Hunter also takes down a Harvester...all these Purge appearing means its time to get out of the Warehouse.

 

One of the NPC's falls to the Harvesters.

 

The Purge storm the warehouse, another NPC falls to a Devastator. By this time Arianna's team had made it back to the ship & Sondars were making good their own escape.

 

So a good first game. We struggled a bit with some of the icons for the various skills. The game plays quite quickly once you get into the groove. Some dislike the small allowance of gear a character can carry, but I think it adds to the game as you really need to think if its worth delving more to 'maybe' find something better, or be glad with what you've found & keeping your crew intact. Playing a single game, players are less likely to care about the characters.

After tally Kurt won with 37 AU to my 27.

 Hope to see this back at the table sooner than later as a campaign would be cool. Guess we shall see.

 Thanks for visiting. 

EWG - Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord

Poking through my shelves for games that needed to see the table, I snagged my copy of Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord, a dungeon crawler for 4 players.

 

The game uses a system, where players 'build' the dungeon as they play. Often seeing what other players need to complete their quests & ultimately placing the room cards they need as far from them as possible.

 

The game comes with 6 characters to choose from. For the first game I played the Darkling Rogue

 

As you complete quests (You need to complete 3 to win) your rewards are often gaining a level.

 

As players progress through the dungeon, they earn Glory (used by the player to play treasures & boon cards on themselves) & Peril points. (Peril is used by other players to make your life interesting, but not in a good way) 

 

The second way to win is by being the last player standing. This was how Chen won the first game. 

We then set it up again & Kurt managed to take the victory after Chen was taken down.

All in all a fun game, which was easy to learn & plays quick....perfect for a night at the club!
 

EWG - When Darkness Comes

 Last Tuesday we had 5 of us out to the club & played When Darkness Comes.

 

 I will say the rules, out of the box, leave a lot to be desired. Luckily I had printed out a set of enhanced rules from boardgame geek prior to running the game.

We used the characters that came in the box to give the first scenario a try. The story gist, was that we were criminals who were being give an 'opportunity' to solve a mystery for a chance for freedom. With all of us armed with a cellphone (to communicate in game) & our various skills, we were off.

 

The game is a bit of an RPG-Lite game where your group works co-operatively to solve the scenario & as we discovered...You DO need to cooperate, or your done for!

 

Your character earns xp for performing various skills & can then expend the xp to re-roll a die, or roll an extra die, etc.

Characters can also 'support' or assist one another to improve the chances to succeed.

 

After trying the game at the club, I took a deeper dive into the rules & discovered we had done several things incorrectly. So I will give this a couple of solo tries before bringing it back out, to work through the odd mechanics.