6MMRPC: Week 7 - almost bust

October continues to be a disappointing productivity month. I thought I had done nothing at all this week, but then I remembered I had brought figs over to my mother's house at the beginning of the week. Not the zombies I should be working on (and thereby failing the zombtober challenge part) but a pittance of work none the less.

 These are the next batch of Russian napoleonics that are in progress. They are jaeger, who look almost identical to the line, except (mostly) for black harness instead of white.

The 3 fig per strip are perry metals, the guys in the forage caps (which are also appropriate for line) are perry plastics.

I took two shots to show the WIP on the black. Not quite done them all with that colour.

I'm a bit disappointed in this week, but honestly it was a nightmare week with multiple visits to the emerg department, and suddenly had the job of cooking (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner devolve to me. What is it with this month anyway?

In related news, I got to play in a big Napoleonics game on saturday which will be posted up shortly. This was totally worth losing painting time for.

6MMRPC: Week 4.5 September Roundup - I do negative good work!

I considered calling it shameful September, but honestly I've been pretty diligent about doing painting work, and documenting it. That's a win. My negative good work is the fact that I scored a bunch of free figs. Normally this is a total YAY!, but I think I've netted more unpainted figs than I've painted. Boo!

My friend Ryan is completing a big move, and has been steadily downsizing his (massive) collection. Our gaming group got to cannibalize a box at our last game sessions, so it was a (incredibly) rare event. By the rules I declare this a gift, so doesn't use a joker. But it's a bit of a negative firecracker to end September with.

I'm totally stoked about the city guard, they look like very cool models. The nymph's, well, I thought I should work on my flesh tone painting. These will force that in spades.

Blogger likes this one upside down for some reason

 The mordheim ogre is just cool. The ranger I thought might be a good addition to a project. I may pass the centaur off to a friend with a beastman army, although I have a few painted beastmen that could be used for a mordheim gang.

The diggas would be good to expand my necromunda collection, and will likely paint up super fast.




 The dwarves I wanted to add to a dwarf mordheim gang. The orcs were kinda cool additions to the few green skins I have. And this is how the lead mountain grows kids. A little bit here and there and POOF!
 
Back to painting.....
I managed to paint up my spiderbots, a cannon and team, get my light box going, and finish some terrain peices.  "Active" in the queue I've got some 15mm grav tanks, and a bunch of 28mm napoleonic infantry. There is also a heap of partially finished projects that will no doubt distract me from time to time. October is ZOMTOBER month, so I'll have to find something apropos to work on as well.

I hope everyone involved in the challenge is finding it helpful and productive. I know, despite this (sorta) failure, I've held back from at least 2 real fig purchases. Considering that would have been a box of 20-40 figs that's a big advance already. Anyone on the sidelines, feel free to come join us, we are a friendly bunch with a (hidden) facebook group, and a blog to track our updates (HERE). Merely asking will get you signed up!

Curse you XCOM!

The fall grind has worn me out so I haven't posted for almost a month and half (!). I'd like to blame a specific video game up front which was the beginning of the fateful fall. XCOM, enemy within. This is actually an expansion to the excellent XCOM enemy unknown, which itself harkens back, many years, to an earlier game: XCOM UFO Defense.

The blue square is a base. Radar ranges stretch to spain...maybe

I originally blamed this game back in early highschool. Got the demo on a high density 3.5 inch and needed to have it. Pre internet, and the BBS's of any use where long distance calls away (at blistering speeds of 4800baud...maybe).  This was a great game, and TOUGH. My gawd did your men die quickly.

You needed to build bases to launch your jets and troop carriers to splash UFOs, fight terror missions (prevent aliens from slaughtering civilians in major cities), and research and manufacture the tech and items you needed to turn back the incursion. Funding was provided by countries around the world and based on your performance. Aliens would attempt to sign treaties with countries to starve you of funds. Secret alien bases would start cropping up like mushrooms as well.

Your bases would occasionally get attacked and aliens would spill through the lift, as well as hangars. The base to your right would be doomed....DOOMED!
Especially bases that were research or manufacturing oriented, and lacked well trained soldiers. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

Also, if too many countries signed treaties or you went bankrupt humanity would be destroyed. Not an infrequent occurrence.


XCOM: Enemy unknown. 
The new iteration has kept all the fun stuff, and managed to remove the vast majority of the tedious irritating crap. A huge step in updating a classic game. The main complaints where about limited maps (not procedurally generated, instead they are set), and the ability to camp your soldiers and eventually win each mission without much risk.

Nicer graphics. Still turn based though.

Tons of the tropes of the series were maintained. The skyranger is your troop ship (now only carrying up to 6, rather than about 10 guys), you can build robot gun carrier bots (mini tanks sorta), there are advance power armour suits that allow flight, you work through crappy conventional weapons up to laser and then plasma, the mind raping telepathic ethereals make a late game appearance, and so forth.

The base looks nicer. But tile based building still.

In a nod to new gamers and old hands, the difficulty level was revised to make it more friendly....BUT, they kept a harder level called 'classic'. I still get rocked on classic. Impossible is the next level up. 

Enter XCOM: Enemy within.

The updated is easily the beset expansion I've ever played. It added a heap of new maps, new aliens (to both give new problems to deal with, as well as keep the early alien types more competitive into the late game), and a reason to race through maps (to harvest a time declining resource needed for certain research).


A host of extra missions with strange objectives and stories was cool as well. A covert transhumanist conspiracy that is competing with you and needs to be crushed. Human cyborgs strapped into huge battle frames and organic mods (reptile eyes, extra hearts, bio-electric discharges). I haven't managed to get through all the new material.

Exalt. Transhumanist terrorist.

One of the creepier missions involves a hideous life form called a chrsalis that acts a bit like the lifeform in ALIEN. It moves fast, and rips you up in close combat. And then your corpse births a new one. While slightly less lethal than in the original game, it's a good nod to the fear/hassle of dealing with them.

A mission to a sea side town ends up finding a bunch of these bastards, which is bad enough until you find the source of the outbreak. A whaling ship filled with infested whale corpses. They start spawning every turn in a definite to overwhelm you sort of way. It basically takes a sacrificial trooper to plant a homing device on the boat to mark the cooridinates of a massive air strike to win the map. Also your own troops are both running to escape the bombardment and from the nasty lifeforms. A gripping mission. It'd make a good roleplaying session (assuming your PC's are somewhat expendable, like in a one off adventure).


 Wargaming
I somehow feel that xcom would give a great scope for some small scale gaming.  Small tables with 4-6 agents and a dozen plus aliens. Various terrains (country, rural, urban). You could even come up with covert operations with 'plain clothes' agents which are hinted at in the various iterations of the game.

With low model counts and a small board, it'd be great for focusing efforts on achievable bite sized blocks. Then you can go off and do other projects. When interested again, you can introduce the next wave of aliens, or tech upgrade, or terrain features.

I'd imagine a 2x2 or 3x3 board. There would even be scope for running a solo game. The aliens would be fairly simple to program. The hardest part would be having an element of surprise in what you were facing. 2 hour wargames deals with this well with PEF's (potential enemy forces)....the counter moves according to roles, and when in site there is a check to see if it's a false alarm, so something more....lethal.

Certainly something to consider.