Back from conventions & other busy life things that keep one away from the brush, I completed my Zombie entry for this week. As Oct 31 is next Saturday, there may be 1 more Zomtober entry to crawl onto the blog, though it will likely be for Frostgrave!
As expected this is another Zomicide Walker...so many to paint still!!!
As I am setting up my gaming table for Frostgrave, I managed to capture an image of him shuffling across an crumbling bridge
So my focus has now switched to getting a warband painted up for Frostgrave. This has also allowed me an opportunity to dig around some of my many miniature boxes to find various figures that will fit well with this theme. As well there are several (non black powder weaponed) Mordheim figures that will also fit the bill.
I arrived home from Fallcon 28 just in time to catch the second airing of Walking Dead, & after spending the weekend gaming to my hearts content, I almost felt like I was walking dead, but in a good way.
Picking up Scott Friday morning we began our journey, with a stop in Red Deer at Compusoft, a store which I've heard about numerous times, but had never visited, suffice it to say I was quickly reaching into my wallet.
We then continued onto Calgary with the requisite visit to The Sentry Box, again my wallet got a little bit lighter. Then it was off to the convention!
Fallcon is about 80% boardgames, though us stalwart miniaturists refuse to roll a 1 & thus we maintain a presence.
These 2 photos show the main gaming floor.
As well there is the 400 game auction on the Saturday Evening. Here are the entries for this much enjoyed event. But more on that later, as we must deal with the gaming antics.
So on Friday night, Sean & Liam again brought out G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Rather than play McCrackens Camel Corps, we randmomly chose factions. This time around I got Dr. Sardonicus & his giant Robot, with Tur-go the Ape Man as a sidekick.
The field of conquest. There were 2 sides this game with the Imperial British vs everything not British. Each sides goal was to capture & hold the Crystal Skull terrain piece.
Of course no GASLIGHT game is complete without random events & creatures making an appearance. Below the Camel Corps moved into the middle of the board & managed to Reconnoiter several of these. They then hastily withdrew so the musketry could deal with the spawned creatures.
The Steam Tank reached the Skull to find the Camel Corps arriving from the other side. After a bitter back & forth struggle (with numerous successful saving throws by both) the Imperial forces won the day. My own Dr Sardonicus held the Skull for several turns before being taken out in melee.
Saturday I enjoyed a day of Colonials. In this scenario, the East India Company needed to defend & reinforce King Solomons Mine. In this system Ross uses various coloured blocks to represent ammunition. As there are various nations forces, each uses its own coloured blocks to represent the diversity of calibres.
I played the initial defenders of King Solomons Mine (below)
At the other end of the table, the East India Company's fortified port. The Steam punt at the bottom right had to travel up the river & carried ammunition for the defenders of King Solomons Mine.
A land force of mixed troops was also dispatched to head to King Solomons Mine.
Each turn, dice were rolled to determine the attacking native forces which could be either Zulu, Dervish's or Indian Mutineer factions, we would also randomly determine where they entered.
Having successfully made it to the mine, we only had to quell the existing forces of natives.
The seemingly endless waves were overwhelming however & we soon lost the outer walls, having to then withdraw up towards the mine entrance.
Below the last of the defenders are about to meet their end as the last line of defence was about to be breached.
It was I believe a close game insofar, as if the random spawns of some of the natives had been further afield, it would have allowed us better time to deal with them at range. Once we were engaged hand to hand, it was all about numbers.
So after that game was cleared it was time for the auction. I feel I actually did quite well controlling my purchases this year. I did get the one main game I was hoping to (Fortune & Glory), as well as 2 others (Gearworld & a World in Flames bundle)
However the fun of spending money was not quite completed. On the Sunday Morning is the Flea Market. The current auction does not allow miniatures, which I still say is bullshit, so the Flea Market offers an opportunity to find or sell miniature related products.
This year I purchased Zpocalypse (which 1 copy had sold in the auction the night before) & a Guilds of Cadwallon board game which I recalled seeing on a Kickstarter a year or 2 before.
I figured I was safe, until my buddy Brent showed me something his brother Steve had won at the BoardgameGeek Con. A huge Dreadball bundle. At first he showed me the gamebox. Then he showed me THE BOX & what all was in it!
Several bags of miniatures, which I am guessing are the various teams. Several booklets, some metal figures (superstar players?) the mousepad foambacked playing board & of course a bunch of bases & other bits I left in the box.
I initially walked away as this game didn't draw my attention during the kickstarter, but then I am always willing to help a buddy & thus managed to finagle a deal with Steve to relieve him of this daunting miniature challenge. Not sure if it will ever see a brush in my hands, but time will tell & perhaps it will be good collateral for other miniature systems I am interested in! Or maybe I will get the bug & try putting a couple teams together...stay tuned to find out.
After the flea market it was time for the All's Quiet on the Martian Front game hosted by Scott & myself. We again played the disabled Land Ironclad scenario previously seen. However this was the first time we took it to Calgary.
We had 2 people who had never played a miniature game before join us. How cool is that! Below Scott explains the types of Martian Tripods.
The Land Ironclad scored early & caused a Slaver Tripod to explode, which then destroyed another that was too close.
The Martians rushed forward, revealing the many blips to find out where the humans really were.
The Ironclad received an early Critical hit. Only 4 more needed to destroy it!
The tripods continued to take losses, even though they destroyed several of the guns on the Landship.
The Red Martian with Siren wailing , though weapons damaged moved to the landship.
Here are the Martian players.
And the humans.
It seemed to take a while before the human reinforcements arrived. They seemed quite unlucky with their dice rolls for this. However once they did come, it was all over for the martians who already in various states of damage, were literally overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.
After scoring an early critical, they were unable to cause anymore.
Thus ended another convention year for me. I will now be focusing on the end of Zomtober & getting my Frostgrave warband finished for my Remembrance Day afternoon.
Last night a couple guys came out to run through the All's Quiet on the Martian Front game we will be running at Fallcon next weekend. Scott wanted to get the rules in his head as its been some time since we played.
As well I managed to get my Zomtober entry in this week. It's likely I won't have an entry next weekend due to my being away, but its possible I can squeeze in a Zombie related game entry.
First up is El Cholo, my Zomtober entry for week 2.
I guess I needed to look closer at his card, it seems he is supposed to have quite a head wound, which I didn't include in the painting. I may need to go back & add that!
The biggest concern for me was his tattoos. So once again I dug through my old decals box. God bless Tamiya for adding the Japanese language text.
The next issue was finding 2 identical or very close sets of this text to use. After much digging I think I did find a matching pair. Turned sideways & mounted on the forearms.
Now onto the All's Quiet on the Martian Front game. Bruce & Scott made it out. Here Bruce is surveying the initial deployments for the Human forces. Again the Landship has broken down & has called for assistance. There are some deployed human infantry & an Anti-Tripod gun hidden in the hasty defences.
The Martians arrive, seeking to destroy this troublesome machine.
The human reinforcements begin to arrive
The Martians push past the human infantry screen.
The initial defence by the humans knocked out several of the tripods, but the scales began to tip.
The Landship was quickly having its armour whittled down. The Martians also managed to destroy 2 of the gun turrets including the main battery.
After many hits, the Martians did manage to destroy the Landship, which is quite a feat.
So now the game is packed again, ready for its trip to Fallcon. It will be interesting to see how the convention crowd takes in this game.
Also on the table are the beginnings of a couple Frostgrave bands for the upcoming Remembrance Day gaming where I hope to have several guys out for what will be several of our first runnings of this game system.
OK so it seems I am once again late to the Zomtober entries. Likely this will be a continual problem for me, just too many things occuring at this time. I know, excuses, excuses. However as I was about to forgo this grand adventure I noticed a single Zombie, shambling down the street. Thus grabbing my camera I snapped a quick photo before the moment passed.
So here is my first weeks entry to Zomtober. Another of the original Zombicide walkers. From what I can see in the box, I appear to have just about reached the halfway mark on these particular Zombies.
As I was varnishing the other figures with just the Light 'Skin' tone of Army Painter dip, I think I prefer the Strong shade when it comes to Zombies, so will likely switch back to that for the next ones.
I also completed the 2 new heroes from the Star Wars: Imperial Assault Twin Shadows expansion.
Nice sculpts overall & they seem to have improved on the joint issues seen in earlier models.
Lastly I finished a bunch of vendor goods to use as scatter terrain or objectives. The first vendor cart has also been painted. I went with a Barn Wood colour for it, but I think I will go for a darker brown on the next ones.
Tomorrow night is club night & from what I've been seeing, it will be a feast evening for games to play.
