Another Mordheim weekend!

Went to my buddy's for his birthday weekend/memorial day and we knocked out maybe six games of Mordheim (five of which I enjoyed!).  In one three-player game my kick ass Undead warband fell apart when two expensive henchmen and two advanced heroes actually died after the game (forcing me to re-start basically).

More wicked marines!

Finished up a Chaos Terminator squad and a handful of assault marines (for either use as actual assault marines or the occasional sergeant).

Walls. Yep. Some walls.

Nothing overly exciting here, but I spent my morning painting walls.  Little ones.  For little people.  Like, 28mm tall people.

These were two unpainted 4Ground kits from their old Rorke's Drift set that I purchased.  Finally got around to painting them.  Will split use between Old West gaming and Mordheim.

Chaos Marines

The first group of marines for my 2nd ed. Chaos Space Marine force.  These will be in support of Nurgle and are thus painted to match.  A mix of MkIII/MkIV and some Vanguard heads w/ Chaos Backpacks.  Sadly they're not quite as vibrant looking as these pics!

Plague...tank...things?

Problem: You wish to build some Rhinos and Predators for an upcoming Chaos army (Nurgle themed).  Sadly you don't like current Rhinos or Predators...and you can't find the old ones - and they're a bit small. 

Solution?  Find a couple of images on the internet and become inspired.  I give you...the Rhino Russ (actually there are two of them).

 The Predator version using magnetized Sponsons and the turret deck plate (simply placed on the model) w/ aftermarket "Deimos" style turret and magnetized autocannon.

 Body consists of a Rhino chassis trimmed down...crammed between Leman Russ tracks and then the back end is made from card/plastic/bits to fill it out.

 Aftermarket resin exhaust stacks on the back sides.

 The rear Rhino gate is kept...even on the Predator (sadly!)

 Sponson heavy bolters will be magnetized or glued in (I may just make spare sponsons instead)

 The Rhino version features the basic Rhino deck plate and simple hatches - I only have one pair of hatches at the moment - more on the way.  Note that without additional vehicle wargear, the Predator will not have the twin-linke bolters on its hatches.

 I find this "version" matches marines a good bit better - and is very Horus Heresy era looking - more robust and brutal.

 The weathering is sloppy at best but I've never painted tanks before...so mostly hand-painted scratches with some additional foam slaps.

Planning to have a third one sometime soon - I will do a full "how to" build post now that I know it works and is possible.

More dungeon crawl reinforcements.

Finishing up a bunch of random minis I've had laying around.  I was also waiting on a new can of dip, so I put a bunch of random stuff together at the last minute.

There is a Reaper "Estra, the Iconic Spiritualist" who will play the role of hag/crone/witch for dungeon crawls and will serve as a Witch for Mordheim.  The dwarfs will serve as...dwarfs.  The snake?  Well, it's from Conan the board game...and who doesn't want to have a huge snake on hand?

Bearing the Plague

As part of my upcoming 2nd ed. Death Guard-inspired Chaos Army for 40K I decided to pick up the first daemons I've ever owned.  Likely to be supported by an eventual Great Unclean One.

Here are 20 Plaguebearers done up very quickly today - simple spray + dip method.  This is a lovely model kit with a nice variation and very easy to paint simply for the desired effect.

Rifts Board Game Kickstarter - Buyer Beware

Well, consider this a kind of public service announcement.

Today, the Rifts Board Game Kickstarter began:

Rifts Board Game (Kickstarter)

Like many teens in the 90's I played a variety of role-playing games, including cutting my teeth with Palladium Book's TMNT and Other Strangeness, and Robotech (my long-time favourite IP).

Siembeda and crew provided a clunky rule-set, but buried within were some neat and interesting worlds and IPs.  Rifts came out a bit later to much fan-fare and garnered quite a large following.  Palladium was never a very progressive company, leaving Robotech as an IP to flounder in the US market for decades (basically putting a stranglehold on it in the US - limiting it to a mediocre role-playing game).

Several years ago Palladium launched a Kickstarter for Robotech as a new type of miniatures game.  I risked buying in, and have regretted it ever since.  As a heads up for people looking at Rifts, please be aware of the following:

• Robotech Kickstarter successfully funded with $1+ million.
• First wave of miniatures shipped (albeit late).
• Second wave (50-60% of the KS content) has never shipped...it's been 3-4 years at this point.
• Kevin Siembeda has been making hollow promises in vague emails, continuing to develop and create excuses with no progress made (at all) toward producing the final materials or delivering them.
• An individual named Carmen (having previously worked with Palladium) sought some rights to produce a Rifts board game (the one in question)
• This individual attempted to quasi-blackmail Robotech backers, attempting to stave off any future repercussions by this fanbase (based around the semi-fraudulent activity of Siembeda etc.)
• Internet mayhem ensued and Carmen disappeared.
• Palladium stated that Carmen had attempted suicide due to mental duress caused by the internet discussions/arguments based around his behavior/communication/antics etc.
• The majority of this material was scrubbed from the KS comments section and users were banned, etc.

Then this Kickstarter showed up.  It is inextricably linked with Palladium/Siembeda and a questionable third party (Carmen, or not?).  People have already been banned on Kickstarter for bringing up this information on the current KS page for this game.

TL:DR Version: Avoid this Kickstarter like the plague if you don't want to get involved with a gigantic nonsensical amount of drama and nonsense - with a questionable company, questionable IP and even more questionable people involved.

Buyer beware.  If you invest in this, please be careful. You may lose your money.

Game Weekend: Mordheim, and Shadow War Armageddon

Got in several games this weekend.  Four games of Mordheim and one game of SWA (followed by some role-playing w/ Savage Worlds).

 Table set-up for a playtest using some ad hoc Monster rules...worked "okay"

 Table set up for the "Occupy" scenario for Mordheim

 Table set up for the Street Fight scenario - each warband must exit the opposing street end

 A glance down the street of doom!

 The street from the other side!

 The street table.

 A three way game of Shadow War Armageddon - overall it really paled in comparison to having just played Mordheim (super "simple" by comparison)

 The wagon of "out of action" models in the first game...my Undead were slaughtered

Table set up for a generic Wyrdstone Hunt