Saturday 6 December 2014

A game of Briskars

Yesterday we had our second game of Briskars.
Truth to be told, it didn't went that well even though I employed different tactics compared to our first game. Our first game was a disaster for me too, but I played quite offensive that time, so I went on the defense in this clash.

The setup:
 First turn comes to an end with only some movement on both sides. Madog and Marten hiding behind a small tent and Zhao ready for a countercharge when needed.
The Thuleen hunter shot at Marten, hitting hard. Madog used obey so Marten could shoot back, but he rolled a Critical Failure.
Madog decided to shoot the Thuleen hunter himself after Marten missed, but failed to hit the hunter too.
The other hunter shot Marten in retun, almost killing him.
Marten shot the first hunter again in his own turn and managed to do some damage.
 The Thuleen leader charged Madog and did some massive damage.
 Zhao rushed to her leader's (Madog) aid, but the Thuleen leader dodged away.
When the Thuleen trapper also joined the fray, Zhao managed to dodge aside as well.
 What follows is the part which made me quit, The Thuleen leader hit Madog again and brought him down with a critical hit.
With Marten having to roll for morale before every activation and most likely to be put down at the start of next turn, I had only one member of my clan left, against four opponents. Time to retreat!
Right now I'm a bit at loss on how to handle my opponents Thuleens.
They are faster, hit harder and have an extra member in their group. It almost feels like I'm playing with a 100 coin handicap.
Comparing our leaders, we noticed his leader has almost the same stats, but is faster, has slightly less hitpoints but wears armour. And oh, he hits like a stormram, bringing down Madog with two hits (three without a CH) is a feat none of my members are capable of.
Madog on the other hand has a ranged attack, but if this is worth 10 more points we are not sure.
Looking at the other briskars we especially feel the extra clan member and the fact his hunters don't have to reload are some major advantages.
These are not really complaints, but we just were trying to figure out how things could go so wrong.
Perhaps I need to bring some other briskars to the field next time ...

Thanks for reading

Cheers

Wouter

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Happy as a child

Last monday a package arrived that I was anxious to get.
It contains part of my World of Twilight pledge, with the new rulebook also included.
It's been a while since I felt like a child with a new toy, but this time I almost danced around the table where the stuff was laying on.


World of Twilight is a rather unique and fun fantasy setting with a lot of this old, almost fairy tale like, fantasy feel. A bit like older fantasy RPG's. It is also often associated with 'the Dark Crystal', a movie I still like and love a lot.

The pledge also contained the new ruler and a hand drawn map of the world.



Mike, the creator of World of Twilight also included these small terrain pieces, which look great.
 I definitely need more of these :).


With some of my Briskars only half finished this project has to wait for a bit longer, but I look forward to start painting those.

Thanks for watching.

Wouter
 

Saturday 22 November 2014

The Lion King saga continues

Hey,

Here's a quick update of the progress I'm making for my Lion King themed force for Briskars.

This little guy is actually calles Marten, but he will be Timon in my force.
His snout is still very rat-like, but I decided not to change it as it would simply be too much for my limited sculpting skill.


As a deserter from his meerkat colony I wanted his clothing to look a bit like a uniform.
I applied some weathering powder to his trousers to make him look like a crawled trough the dirt.
Like Nala, I also gave him a tail, just because I liked him to have one.


I hope you like him.
Even with a different lamp, he still looks a bit yellow.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers
Wouter

 

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Briskars, a 54mm game

 
 
After another long absence I have finally something to show again.
This time it's a 54mm game I picked up at Crisis this year.
 
Briskars is a fun and fast 54mm scale skirmish game with a lot of character and rpg elements.
There are a lot of options you can choose from about what you can do in a turn, like a kick, head-butt, attack or even throw your opponent or pick up and move scenery.
Even in defense, you have the option to simply take the hit, dodge or counter-attack.
Which makes it quite a fun and tactical game.
The limited number of models needed (there are 3 in most starters and you need about 4-5 for a standard game) also makes it possible for each Briskar to do a lot of actions in a turn, depending on how much action points they have.
 
The rules and cards can be downloaded for free from the website:
A word of warning though. The game is originally in French game and the translation isn't perfect, as is often the case with those smaller gaming companies.
 
As for the miniatures, I found the resin they are using to be very brittle.
The handguard of the swordhandle had broken of in the packaging and while removing the flash the staff also snapped in two.
I mailed them because of these issues and TGCM said they are looking for a better material and that they were already aware of the problem.
I hope they master the casting procedures in the nearby future, as there were a lot of mould lines, some were hard to remove and I even noticed I missed some while painting.
This may all sound a bit negative, but the miniatures were a lot of fun to paint and I look forward to paint more.
 
As for my Briskars, the moment I got them in my hand I decided to do a themed clan.
The theme I choose is a bit silly, I know, but it kind of fits them.
Here's my first memebers of the King's Rock clan (based on the Lion King ;)).
 
Madog (aka Pumbaa)

 
 
Zhan Bao (aka Nala)
 

Nala was converted a bit, as the miniature had bulging eyes I didn't like and I wanted t make her look more like a lioness.
Seeing the artwork of their upcoming Maoks faction (felines), I noticed they all had tails while Zhan Bao didn't even have much of a bum. So I added some volume to her rear-robes and gave her something to swat some flies with.
Overal I'm quit happy with them, although they look a bit yellowish in the pictures, must be the light.

Well, that's it for now, got to take care of my argueing children :).

Thanks for watching!

Monday 25 August 2014

Happy birthday to me :)

It's again been a while since I last posted something.
Part of it because I played a lot of computer games again.
With Dragon age Inquisition coming up I replayed the first two titles.
But also lost myself a bit in 'The Wolf among us', which I think is one of the best rpg's I ever played.

I did some painting though, but lost interest after a bad experience with a varnish spray.
After painting a lot of 15mm miniatures, I decided to varnish them, so they were ready for a game of Gruntz.
I don't know if it was because of the weather (it was very hot), because of the wind or if there was anything wrong with the spray, but a white coating appeared on my miniatures.
This wasn't the first time something like that happened though. I let the varnish dry and gave it a second coating, as this solved the problem in the past. Too my horror, the second coating didn't solve the issue at all and instead frosted on the previous white coat, forming a thick white crust.
The only solution was to strip them all of the varnish and paint.

Lately I've been following the new release of Heavy Gear Blitz, which is now available as a beta edition. And decided to collect a force of my own. After reading in the older Locked and Loaded book, I decided to go for the Silver Vipers, as I like their background the best.
Here's my first Jäger miniature:


Today is my birthday and the postman brought me some presents from me too me, as a result from my past kickstarter spending habit.
I looked forward too both of them and neither did disappoint me.

The first is Relic Knights, the rewards are a bit late, and I already started to worry a bit as there are so many people who already received them.
Here's a portion of the rewards I received:
Secondly is from a roleplaying game I'm currently running: Shadows of Esteren.
The quality is extremely high, both in artwork as in the writing.
It can't be seen in the picture, but the books are all hardcover and there are so many details in the art. The Black Rose box actually closes with a magnet, which is incorperated in the cardboard.

Anyway, that's it for now, got to spend some time with the kids :).

Thanks for reading and until the next time!

 

Sunday 4 May 2014

Snapping grishak

Hey,

My painting rate really is going up last month, as here are my two other painted grishak.
These were really fun to paint, and I did them in just a few hours, another quick paint job.
I like the sculpt, they have so much character and it is easy to make them look good.
Perfect for a lazy Sunday.

The one standing with his mouth open looked as if he was defending his food against other predators or perhaps others of his pack. So I added a piece of meat on his base.
As there are only two sets of legs and two bodies I tried to add some variety already, otherwise they are all going to look the same.
 

 
Thanks for reading!
 
Wouter

Saturday 3 May 2014

Is it a bird, is it a plane ...?

NO! It's Pink Fire!

Okay, yesterday I had a day off and sat behind my painting desk and felt a bit bored by my current projects.
Then I noticed some Crossover miniatures, I recently received as part of my KS pledge, on top of my unpainted miniatures pile and started assembling these.
My head flooded with ideas and colour schemes and before I even noticed I started painting the first in a colour I rarely use: pink, I'm still puzzled why.
Superhero's and the like are most often not my cup of tea, but still I enjoyed painting her.
The miniatures aren't overly detailed and all come with three different heads, these are actually interchangeable so there is a lot of variety.

Anyway, the colour therapy worked as I happily worked on my two other grishak today.

Here's the background I came up with for Pink Girl:
When a meteor fell down near her hometown, a lot of cosmic dust came along with it.
She tells everyone she got her superpowers when she came into contact with the dust.
However, since she is a bit of a drug-addict, most people believe she actually sniffed or injected it.
This hasn't stopped many from trying to replicate the effects though. But something else must have happened, because so far none was able to get the any effect at all.

 
Thanks for reading!
 
Wouter

Friday 2 May 2014

Some progress and something to look forward to

Hello,

Here's another update. I didn't get a lot painting done since last time, but decided to share anyway.

Here's a grishak for my World of Twilight Devanu force. Just two more to go and I have a playable force for the Devanu.
The painting scheme isn't mine to be honest. I saw it on Laughing Ferret's blog and immediately knew this was what I wanted too.
Laughing Ferret's (http://laughingferret.blogspot.be/2011_04_01_archive.html)  grishak are much better painted ;). I only changed it a bit, as I want to do a large horde of them I went for a quick paintjob, that I could easily do many times over.


Something new and also a thing I look forward to is another Crowdfunder for Relics.
I recently got interested in the Nuem and the rules and ordered two starter sets, which arrived today.

The Nuem are a bit larger than I expected, as I was envisioned them to be of a dwarf like height.
What I really like about the Britanians is the way the miniatures can be assembled. The troopers have seperate heads and guns which all look different and the officer has a large variety of hands.
The overal quality is very good and the miniatures look very different from the usual steampunk/fantasy settings out there.

 

 
 
I never heard of Gamingfunder though, so I have no idea what to expect.
Let's just hope they accept PayPal.
They also have a pre-funder compettion where you can get a free knight if you enter and win 50% of your pledge back.

Thanks for Reading!

Wouter

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Predator on the prowl

Hello!

Here's a quick update from my painting table.
Last night I finished  painting another World of Twilight miniature: A Devanu Sempa (a female).







I tried something different for the base this time, as I wanted her to look as if she erupted from the forest to assail her prey. I'm also still pondering if I should put moss on the fallen tree.
I didn't as I'm afraid it would make the whole too green.

Thank you for reading.

Wouter

Saturday 19 April 2014

A fresh start



All right, I decided to make some changes to this blog, so it reflects my current interests better.
As it isn't just about 15mm anymore I gave the blog a more appropriate name.

It is also a bit of fun title for me, as my professional title is SPE (Small Project Team Engineer).
But since I like skirmish games a lot, it seems to fit perfectly for my hobby status as well.

Here's some pictures of my latest projects:

First is World of Twilight, a fun little game and a true gem in the gaming world.
Both the miniatures and the gaming system are really unique and have a bit of a savage and fairytale feel at the same time.
I was already following the game for a while, but jumped in when they released their kickstarter about a month ago.
The miniatures below where ordered at Hasslefree to see the quality and size of them before the kickstarter ended. I also used them to try out colour schemes, so the paint may look a bit strange at some places.

Here are the pictures of my first painted mini's:

 This one is an Enuk Nobilis, a herding animal. The fluff says they are all owned by the Emperor of the Fubarnii (yes, the names are something you have to get used to) and are given to nobles and knights as tokens of honour. I plan to create a small herd of these and do some small conversions.


This one is an engineer with a derak (the blunderbuss).

Second up is Wolsung from Micro-art studio.
When my friend and I visited Spiel last year, we played a demo and were almost immediately hooked.
We decided to buy the two player starter set with the Triad of Lotus Dragon for me (even though I already had some miniatures for the Ash and Oak Club and the Inventors Club) and the Inventors Club for my friend.
I am still tinkering with some steampunk terrain for them, but in the meantime some old cardboard Mordheim terrain will do.
My only bad remark about the starterbox is that officially you can only field four of the five miniatures in it, and they are a bit of a one trick pony.
Which means I was totally trashed in all three games we played. Time to paint up some more.
Again it is a game with a very refreshing set of rules and the miniatures are very cool too.

 Phoenix and a shade


I'm also dabbling a bit in the Heavy Gear universe and trying out some colour schemes for my South and North.
The reason? They have published their newest Alpha rules which seem a lot easier  to use than their previous set of rules. On top of that, I really like their miniatures and have some laying around for years. But they are a bit of a pain to put together (positioning is many times very restricted  and they are all at least 6 pieces each)
They are 12mm and I like to play with them on a Dropzone Commander city board, as well as the forest/jungle/swamp terrain I'm putting together for Freebooter's Fate and most likely World of Twilight and Anima Tactics as well.

That's it for now.
Thanks for reading!

Wouter

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Resurfacing

Hello all!

It's been a while since my last post.
Partly because I played a lot of computer games and spend little time painting (Xcom: enemy within and Dragon age I and II).

At Spiel in Essen I picked up Wolsung with my friend and started painting the starter set so we could play some games. The game Iis really good and has some refreshing mechanics.
Recently I also started painting some World of Twilight minis as I backed the kickstarter and wanted to try out some colour schemes.
Which means I've it been doing 28mm since december.

Anyway, it's been too long.
So, why this post you might ask, as I have nothing to show for after all this time.
Well, there is another KS I'm backing which may put me back on track:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mechafront/mecha-front-miniatures?ref=banner

The description also reminded me we still have to try out Gruntz. Which has been planned and postponed a couple of times.

This blog isn't dead yet ;)

Thanks for reading!

Wouter