Spooky King and Queen

 This is kind of a matter of opportunity post. This very week I've received my parcel from the most amazing Forest King by Ana Polanšćak Kickstarter Campaign run by Andrew May at Meridian Miniatures. You can easily tell those names are quite a guarantee of good work and quality, and I simply couldn't resist.

If you have a look at the link above, you'll see how the original model was conceived. But I had a different approach for such a creature. I had some deer skulls (in fact... can they come from a previous Kickstarter by Ana Polanšćak too? I think so...). Whatever. I cut the original face out and replaced it with the skull. It gave the mini a different vibe, kind of darker, I think:

It looks scary to me!

I considered using a black palette, but on a second thought, the contrast with the white skull would make it look pretty much like No-Face from Spirited Away. So I went for natural colours, in all kind of browns. They look pretty much darker and deeper in the pic. Anyway, it's spooky, and that's what I wanted!

This beast is huge

I used the KS to get a treat myself, I purchased the Vampire Queen as an add-on. What a scary creature indeed.

Boo

Its slenderness, proportions... everything is so uneasy about this mini! I love it. I thought of adding some kind of crown or raggedy clothes... but in the end I decided she's perfect just as she is. The only variation is that I didn't add the tail. This way she resembles more a human-like shape. I wanted the model to look scary and creepy. It is indeed! 

And huge too!!

I simply had to paint both creatures, I was hypnotized by them, and scary and spooky as they are, I thought these quite appropiate days to post them both!

King and Queen

 Here you have them. Quite an impulse, but I'm happy I painted them! I don't know what will be next, but for sure it won't be as eerie and scary... These are difficult to challenge! 

Test game: Genestealer Infestation

 Back as promised with another test game on the Qala Debdou board! A bit chaotic in terms of preparation, as you will immediately see, but immensely fun, as I hope I’ll be able to convey in what follows.

A window of opportunity opened up for this very weekend, so I asked my mate Rodrigo if he fancied seeing the board in person and trying out what it could do. It all came together surprisingly easily (unusually so, in fact), but it was a total rush and our gaming time was going to be very, very short. That meant there was no chance to read a new rulebook or put together proper warbands, nor could we afford to stop every three minutes to check the rules. So we ruled out the ideas I’d had in mind (Stargrave, Planet28, Inq28 and a few others) and went for something we both know by heart and can play almost on autopilot. The good old reliable 2nd Edition.

Yup. We're that crazy.

More stuff! To make the whole thing even more entertaining, as soon as my Suberlings (10 and 6 y.o.) heard what was going on, they made it very clear they weren’t going to just sit and watch two bearded forty-somethings play. They wanted in!

Up to now we’ve played a few board games at home. HeroQuest, Zombicide, that sort of thing. And although they’re constantly messing around with my minis going pew pew, we’d never actually tried a proper wargame before.

Well, that’s about to change: their first game will be WH40K2, right there on the Qala Debdou board. I mean, really… what could possibly go wrong?

 Let's set the game!

The board

Since it’s still under construction, I left the upper module as it is. You might notice there’s a new addition since last time. That’s all the progress I’ve managed so far since the previous post.

What's that... thing?

It’s an elevator with a walkway. Since it’s already built, I just left it there. I’ll explain what on earth that thing is in my next post about Qala Debdou — hopefully with a bit more progress to show!

Faced with this new situation, my friend proved the true gentleman he is and immediately offered to take on the role of GM for a game involving the kids (with me giving the younger one a bit of help). When you’ve got friends like that, life’s just better.

Anyway! A Genestealer outbreak has erupted in a remote mining town on some far-flung planet out in the Eastern Fringe! Terrifying purestrains are roaming free everywhere, and the Genestealer Cult has come out into the open. Horror. Panic. Mayhem.

After a few encounters, the Blood Angels have already paid a painful toll. 

You see that foul xeno with rests of  a fallen Blood Angel?

A squad of Blood Angels has just landed to fight the filthy xenos and recover the geneseed of the fallen. Their objective is to find that particular Genestealer and retrieve the geneseed before it takes down in the caverns and it's irremediably lost.

They arrive in an assault ship: 

I bought that thing second-hand before I even had kids. Haven’t so much as touched it since then. But it was absolutely necessary for this scene

Suberling Primus will manage the Genestealers while Suberling Secundus (and me) will encarnate the Blood Angels. Our generous GM will handle the civilian population and any random events that may happen if the game unbalances too much.

Deployed!

The squad soon had to face their first enemy, who wasn't really that a hard match, but certainly slowered them. By doing so, it allowed a much more dangerous peril to show...

The Genestealer Magus!

 The Magus didn't hesitate to use his psychic powers on the Space Marines. Oh, yes, I didn't mention. Of course we used the Dark Millenium cards. You think I'm going easy on my kids for their first game? That's life, if you learn to play, you learn WH40K2 with Dark Millenium.

The Magus cast the psychic power The Horror, which fills the minds of living beings with visions of their worst fears. Given the kind of game we were playing, we decided it wouldn’t affect the squad as a whole. Instead, we rolled separately for each member (more tension that way!).

The sergeant was the only one affected, forced to fall back until he could pass a Leadership test. The rest of the squad, however, pressed on relentlessly and took down the Magus in a storm of bolter fire.

Move, move move!

 Three Space Marines moved forward, the sergeant fell back and another Space Marine stayed behind to face the Genestealer Primus.

In the meantime, the Genestealers feasted on the terrified civilians who tried to escape:

Om nom nom

Aaah! Too hot, too hot! I burnt my tongue!

Against all odds, the Genestealer Prime managed to kill a Space Marine in close quarters combat!

O-oouch

The Sergeant recovered and advanced towards his foul enemy, while the rest of the Squad reached the main building and stayed ther in overwatch.

Yes. Overwatch. Because this is 2nd Ed.

The Genestealer Patriarch, feeling the death of hs most loyal acolyte, came into the open and also casted his psychic powers. He used the Catalyst on a Genestealer (we're micromanaging the game), which became frenzied (doubled its attacks, among other delicacies!) and gained a 2D6 saving throw (just like a terminator). Gasp!
 

The monster immediately leaped upon the Space Marines

In the meantime, the Cultists made their way through the maze of alleyways, doorways and whatnot to take up their positions

  

The frenzied Genestealer killed a Marine

 

The Sergeant dealt with the Genestealer Prime

 

 Things were going awfully hard for the Space Marines. The Cult was really getting control of the town and killing civilians everywhere. So our GM introduced new elements. A valiant cop...

Sir, I'm gonna need your license to drive that machine and the documents...

It didn’t pass the inspection! Administrative offence! Call for backup, now!

At another point of the town, the Genestealer Patriarch was getting ready to cast his psychic powers again. But when he did so... I played the Daemonic Attack card which I just got on this round!! A breach in the Warp opened and...

A Daemon claimed the Patriarch! (Miniature added for dramatic purposes only)

Wow. So wild!

I’d really missed these crazy plays and those sudden twists of fate that can change the whole flow of a game in an instant. Needless to say, I was absolutely loving it, the GM was in stitches, and the kids were already hopelessly hooked on the game.

The civilians were slowly getting to the (relative) safety of the landing pad

While the Space Marines covered them

Along the game we were finally using the board. There were some movements within the inner stairs, some risky jumps Prince of Persia style, miniatures in risk of getting injured or stunned...

Parkour!

Genestealers proved to be quite lethal during all the game!

 Finally! The ship arrived to evacuate the civilians:

(I took some risks placing that model on that landing pad hanging into the void!!)

The murderous Genestealer climbed and climbed up the wall like a roided-up cockroach.

How did you get in here?

But was slain and fell down again:

Dramatic pic

The ship finally took off, evacuating the remaining civilians. Not that there were many left, to be honest. I forgot to mention it earlier, but among the townsfolk were the governor and his wife, and let’s just say their story didn’t have a happy ending...

At least for them...

 The Genestealers had a quite happy ending with them -and it's been reported that some Imperial citizens showed different degrees of happiness when the news spread. Of course there's an ongoing Inquisitorial investigation pending.

 

OK, this was it all! A few civilians were rescued, though the authorities consider the losses massive. The Genestealer Cult was somehow contained, waiting for future tougher action to be taken. The Blood Angels had some severe casualties and didn't retrieve the lost geneseed, so they may have to come back again anytime soon...

The possibilities are still open!

 

Some quick conclusions:

The game works nicely with four or five minis per side, even with a ruleset like WH40K2 (though you’ve got to treat each mini individually rather than as part of a squad). With larger forces it would probably get a bit more complicated, though still manageable, I reckon. Anyway, the game you’ve just seen took us less than two hours from start to finish. I don’t think we could’ve pulled that off with a ruleset we weren’t already so familiar with — but that’ll come in time.

Playing on a 3D board is brilliant fun. We pulled off some crazy, risky moves, made full use of the different levels, and the game was constantly on the move, hardly any static firefights at all. That said, the board is massive; you really have to decide where you want the action to take place, otherwise it’s just too much to handle. There are still loads of corners I haven’t tried yet, but I’ve already seen that it’s perfectly playable and genuinely has loads of potential.

However, one small issue — the landing platform. Not in terms of gameplay, but practicality. It’s right at the front and gets massively in the way, making it tricky to reach the back areas of the board. I was honestly worried a couple of times we’d knock it and break it. The painful conclusion is that I can’t keep that piece there. I need the board closer to the players so we can reach everything properly, and that’s impossible with such a big obstacle in the way. Luckily, it’s a removable section, so taking it out will be easy, though it’s a shame after all the work that went into it. I’ll see if I can fit it somewhere else.

No complaints though: this is exactly why I wanted to play, to figure out what works, what doesn’t, what needs tweaking or ditching altogether. So as far as testing the board goes, I’d call it a roaring success.

As for the game itself, I had an absolute blast. It was tense, full of twists and packed with action. I can’t thank Rodrigo enough for being such a generous and committed GM. The Suberlings were blown away by the game and by what a wargame can offer. A whole new world just opened up for them. In fact, they barely left the board all weekend. Looks like it’s going to be a busy week ahead… but if that’s my biggest problem, I’ll take it any day!

As soon as I can, I’ll get back to building the city. I still owe you an explanation about that structure from the beginning — and hopefully I’ll make a bit more progress too!

Hope you liked it!

The river of Twilight

 New installment of the World of Twilight project! I'll be making a few (totally non-periodical!) posts comprising the minis from the Rivers of Anyaral kickstarter campaign, which my mate took part in and asked me to paint for him. The common theme for these minis is life around the rivers of the Fubarnii Empire — folks who dwell by the banks, marshes and lagoons, basically all those living close to the water. The Riverfolk.

For this first batch I’ve picked a couple of big monsters and a few smaller figures, just to keep things varied.

I started with a total favourite of mine, the River Akitiin, a gorgeous model made of four pieces:

I apparently need a water-themed mat

It's a pretty awesome monster and quite large! For a reference, in the pic above I used a A4 as the mat. It's the larger and water version of the land Akitiin you got to see here.

The other big creature I’ve painted is the Torala. I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone with this one and went for a gradient in the purple range. I originally planned to add some coloured spots on its back, but in the end I really liked how the gradient turned out, and I felt that adding a second accent colour would just mess up the vibe.

50 shades of purple

I really hope it's a herbivore. Anyway, purple hippo looks scary and it's a big beast (that's a 60mm base!!)

The rest of the fellas today are called the Guardians of the River, a nice mix of both infantry and cavalry minis which I'd say provide security along the merchant routes (honestly, I haven't read their background yet, I'm just judging by their name).

Charming characters

The ferrymen (ferrylizards? ferryfubarnii? Hmmm...)

Colourful cavalry

 It’s always brilliant fun coming back to this project. It lets me loosen up and have a go at new colours or techniques I wouldn’t normally try on other minis. To be honest, I reckon I should pinch a few of the ideas and colour combos I’m learning here and sneak them into other projects (Orks, hello?).

Anyway, that’s a tale for another day. For now, this is what I’ve got. I think I’ll switch back to some terrain work before picking this up again... That mining town isn’t going to build itself, is it? 

Up and up!

You thought you had seen it all from the mining town of Qala Debdou? Far from that!

 Just when you thought I had reached peak architectural madness, along comes the upper module to prove there’s always room for more questionable decisions!

This was always my original plan, to add a second storey. That was the reason for that sudden flat cut top of the board. 

Because what could possibly go wrong when you mix foamboard, glue, and unearned confidence?

 You can see it's way smaller than the lower module. I shaped the background in an irregular way, to show that this village isn’t just a mere jumble of adobe houses with no urban planning (although it’s that too), but is genuinely carved into the side of a mountain. The town properly nestles into the side of a cliff, so  it looks less like an accident in urban planning and more like a mining settlement that clawed its way out of solid rock. At least that's how I like to picture it.

I’ve had to include access points from the lower module to the upper one. The challenge was not being able to exceed its vertical limit (otherwise I won’t be able to put it back in the cupboard). That’s why I built these two... errrr, things.

One wrong move and your miniature will plunge with panache

Zero respect for gravity or workplace safety regulations

 OK, now to the module itself. I started with another stupidly big structure:

Seriously, designing and cutting these horseshoe arches is a nightmare

I promise it all makes sense in my mind

You can see I simply painted a big door on the background

Just to give the impression that there's access to the inner mountain

That will be a docking point for airships or something like that. Now I have to connect it to the town...

That inside is already painted and ready for the next step in madness...

Lights!

This time I’ve decided to install the LEDs before building the structures, hoping it will give the town a better lighting system...  and maybe even make me look a bit more professional in your eyes. No, yeah, I get it, it's too late for that. Anyway.

I'm combining adobe structures or straight cut buildings with more natural shapes, showing houses carved directly on the rock:

It will be fun to get acces to that house up there

You see that dark door below the starircase...?

 

This is just downstairs the airship dock

In my mind that door will lead to... well, a place. It's in my plans, but haven't built it yet. You'll see it eventually.

Now I'm about to build a rather complex piece:

Why am I doing this to myself?

A pure exercise in stubbornness

The piece from the inside, so you get an idea

Building pieces like this and adding the LEDs as you go means that you have to build (wait for it to dry),  add putty to soften corners and give texture (wait for it to dry), spray paint it (wait for it to dry), add the LEDs, glue it (this step can be sometimes inserted before). A little bit time consuming. It's driving me crazy taking the whole thing to the window just to throw a couple of bursts of spray and that's all. But there's no other way to get it done.

Don't forget opening spaces for the wires! Plan it ahead!

You can't see it, but the Saint in the icon is bearing a bolt gun

From the outside, the structure starts to make sense: it’s a mad stack of steps, arches and rock, but it’s got character. The character of a deranged madman, but character anyway.

Build, wait, putty, wait, paint, wait. Repeat

If I thought this piece had been complex, now the next one is going to be absurd. I need to provide gaming options and explore the verticality of the board, so I'm going to have different levels. You'll see:

Let's start the house from the roof. First thing is that platform, which will set the desired endstate of this part

 I want to connect the staircase coming up from the lower left with the arched staircase above. My final idea is to create three levels at different heights. Let’s see if I can pull it off.
 

Where do those stairs lead??

Oh, additional problem (which I was aware of even before it presented itself):

The edges of the modules don't line up

Of course it was evident since I was building the lower module. But that problem for Future Me has just got me!

I hope it holds up! (And that I can store it without exceeding the cupboard limit!)

From the front, the new piece finally starts to make sense: an open gallery overlooking the valley, connected by steps that seem designed by someone who’s never met a building inspector. But it’s perfect for this crazy settlement’s narrative!

Yes, I'm cheating with a toy rock

Now you can see the three levels:

It looks like I had a real plan all this time. I didn't, but it looks like so

Balconies are addictive: build one, and suddenly you need five more. Well, this is all a precarious spiderweb of platforms, but honestly, that’s exactly the vibe I wanted.

There’s a reason why I built this structure ending in that platform at the top and with that particular height.
But I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for another post for me to tell you about it. I’ll try to start building the explanation this weekend. As soon as I’ve got progress, I’ll share!