Hobby: Minuteman Axebearer

 
This is another miniature for Sophie and my Renaissance of Flesh setting in my game 'With Strength Enough'. This is the first model I made with the idea of a baseline human player character in mind; I went in thinking of a standard martial class for Dungeons and Dragons, something like a fighter or a Barbarian. The model itself is a kitbash from old Imperial Guard legs, Frostgrave and Stargrave pieces, with my own sorry attempt at a greenstuff eye on the axe. I'm trying to integrate more of the biotic technologies into the miniatures. I think that ideas in TTRPG's about enchanted weapons or other item enhancements would carry through in Renaissance of Flesh as strange organs or seemingly living membranes.  In this case, I imagine the character's axe can see flaws in enemies' armor or shields to slightly guide the wielder to better hack at their opponents' weak spots.

For the characters' paint scheme, I wanted something that felt suitably worn down by travel and consistent use, while also highlighting aspects of the setting's sci-fi nature.  I went for neutrals for the model to hopefully give the character a more rugged/traveller feeling, but with a red helmet, which, in my head, was stolen or looted from a corporate soldier of one type or another. 

Thanks for Reading!

-Your Favorite Madman-

1490 Doom: First Test Game

 

Myself and Sophie went over to see Chris 'The Fabricator' a few weeks ago to test out Beur Games' 1490 Doom Ruleset. It's been something of an indie darling since its release and is one of several resurgent games with a decisively grim dark atmosphere. Inspired by older titles like Mordhiem and more recent major successes like Mork Borg and Trench Crusade, 1490's atmosphere is indicative of the sludgey dark fantasy genre's oppressive atmosphere combined with slick production quality.  I find the combination of 80s punk zine aesthetic and modern professional design very appealing. 

As for the game itself, the primary narrative thrust is that in the year 1490, a deadly miasma called the 'creeping death' has settled across the world. The majority of the population dies from this mysterious, deadly fog, with the remainder developing rebreathers to stay alive in this apocalyptic time. Even with this some banks of the dog are so caustic that they will still cause death.  This essentially means a 'King of the Hill' style scenario with survivor bands attempting to climb to the highest point on the board to get above the fog. 

Each player controls 3 figures, with players assigning a class out of a generous dozen or so different options and selecting options like climbing gear, throwables, and other expendable items 

My warband, the 'Dread Harvest', from left to right, an Assassin, Executioner, and Reaver

Chris' warband the 'Hallowed Hand'

Sophies warband 'The Bread Line' 

1490 is played normally on a small round table with a lot of terrain, defined as about the size of a dinner plate. For our purposes, we went with a 2x2 board and a scattering of castle terrain to give us some interesting verticality.

The warbands set out into the labarythine ruins of the castle. working aggressively to get to good positions to gain height for later in the game.  VP is scored at the end, and is primarily centered around who has models the highest up on the board, and how much vitality (health) each player has remaining in active play. 

The nature of the games setup lends itself to some cool tight aesthetics of adventurers exploring toppled ruins and castles. Which is a big win in my book

Chris' warband scrabbles around courtyards of the eastern castle looking for a way up to the top of the center tower

My assassin, whom started on the opposite side of the board from the rest of the Dread Harvest makes his way up to the southern battlements and begins heading to meet up with the Reaver to ascend to the top of the complex.

Sophie's warband works its way forward at ground level, and begins attempting to use ladders and grappling hooks to ascend at different points of the structure. 

The warbands begin meeting and violence ensues as the Dread Harvest's assassin pushes Sophies' scout off her ladder, and confrontation is had at the centre tower and north western gate between the Dread Harvest and the Hallowed Hand.

The clash of steel between my executioner and Chris' bulwark goes against me, and the executioner finds himself reduced to a gory pile in the face of his foes attacks. 

Things start getting tense at cloud level as members of each warband begin a showdown at the towers atrium, with throwables and the crash of blades signalling the beginning of the end game. 

In the final turn, everyone had made their way to the top of the tower and a frantic rush to push each other off the highest tower began. 

Chris ended up carrying the day by only a small VP margin over Sophie and myself. 

Overall it was a really enjoyable experience, that reminded me in some ways of Mordhiem, which is of course no bad thing.  It does make me consider how much versatility the ruleset has to it, so many of its abilities and mechanics focus on climbing and the ascent to higher levels for positional advantage, that it may be limited in regards to some of the more specific narratives that we tend to craft. That being said, its a great 'beer and pretzels' game, that can be played very quickly. Making it a perfect option for midweek gaming. That plus the small model count and limited space needed for the table means that I can heartily recommend the title for anyone interested. 

I think, if you are transitioning into the world of tabletop wargames from more traditional TTRPG's you may find this a particularly fun one for its limited model count and slick app support. Its certainly more approachable that larger battles games like Warhammer, or Dragons Rampant. With a tight focus that means more game, with more people. 

  Thanks for Reading! 

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: The Mystical Stag of Arborioch

This is a model that I've wanted to make for a long time, particularly since watching Princess Mononoke. I really enjoy the idea of pulling an otherwise benign model of a deer into something mystical or incredibly powerful.  I think in an era of the hobby where miniatures companies are making some truly impressive and titanic miniatures, its nice to have something that can represent great power in an otherwise subtle package.  

This is a Stag model from the Dungeons and Dragons line of 'pre-primed' miniatures, and was picked up at one of the local LGS for a few dollars. I think of it as either a potent boss/npc for TTRPG's or as a hero for Dragons Rampant. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Hermetic Wizard

This strange little mini is from the excellent Beastarium Games, it was printed by Chris 'The Fabricator' for me, as Im a sucker for strange Blanchian/Dark Souls style things. This was part of a purposed mini exchange for the holidays in the club. I chose to make him a little brighter, color pallet wise, as I think of him like a Radaghast the Brown style eccentric. I have a whole little adventuring set from this company, and they support their monthly releases with 5th edition DnD stat blocks and an adventure path which I think is really interesting. A link to Beastarium's website is below!

Beastarium Games

Thank you for reading!

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Dwarven Hero

While myself and Sophie were down visitng Sippin' on Paint Water's author Chris, we stopped into one of the local gaming stores and I found this lovely little dwarf figure for about $5, which was a steal. The figure was resin printed by the shop with a commercial license and packed in a blister. Which is a model i'd love to see more LGS start, it's a great way to get more of the burdgeoning 3D designers out and visible to the world, and with the materials and production cost being so low, allows for a deeply diminished price point on the figure itself.  

Sadly, the original designer of this character was not listed on the blister. But in doing some research I found that this is 'Luther the King' from Miniatures of Madness (LINK)

He was a lot of fun to work on.  Maybe i'll get a few other beardy fellows as well to help him on his no doubt mighty deeds. 

Thanks for reading!

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Cerberus Mercenary #1

I've been working on my own game 'With Strength Enough' which has been going very well, and a test copy is also available. Inquire in the comments below if youre interested in helping out!  The Beta version of the game is set in Warhammer 40,000. But the final version will be set in the Rennaissance of Flesh. A Biopunk setting of my and Sophie's design that we have been brainstorming for several months.  

The fellow below is a Cerberus, a transhuman species created early in the setting's history, during a time known as 'Lucy's War'. In the modern setting the Cerberi live their lives like anyone else, but due to their unique enhanced physiology are adept at combat roles and so many find work as guns for hire. 

We based the cultural morae's of the Cerberi on modern Mongolia, and obviously incorporated aspects of cyberpunk into the mix as well. I wanted to make something that felt like a mix of mis-matched practicality and efficency. 

The model is primarily a Mantic Games Enforcer, with Anvil Industries Cape and head added.  

Thanks for reading!

-Your Favorite Madman-

Pride of Lions Playtesting: Hobgoblins of The Jade Flame

David McBride from Splintered Light a producer of 15mm scale fantasy miniatures (LINK) is working on the 2nd Edition of his fantasy battles game Pride of Lions, offering a selection of army bundles for those interested in participating in the Playtesting for the game. These armies provide a mixture of very interesting figures and at 15mm scale represent a very approachable and interesting hobby project.  

The game is played on 2x2 foot squares and focuses primarily on the aftermath of a magical apocalypse in a fantastical world, where the worst excesses of warlocks and other magic users has scoured the traditional fantasy world and left the barbaric tribes of monsters which most of us will recognize (trolls, orcs, beastmen etc) to inherit the remains, not all of the 'civilized' peoples are gone but as mentioned, are greatly depleted in scope and capability. I thought this was a particularly interesting setting and I needed to take a hiatus from 40k for a bit, thus I decided to participate in this playtest. 

I picked up 3 warbands,  those being Hobgoblins, Black Root Bog, and Pig-Faced Orcs, in addition to these warbands I wanted to work on 2x2 boards specific to each one's native territory.  The first of the warbands that I opened up was the Hobgoblins, which included a unit of firey hellhounds, human barbarian infantry, and monstrous flame giants to accompany the metal-clad lines of hand weapon/shield warriors and spear-armed infantrymen. The hobgoblins and their attendant allies and creatures represented one of the more well-equipped and well-armed warbands in the game and I felt that as a result, they must have a territory appropriate to supply this wargear.  I settled on a desecrated Dwarven hold as their territory and went with a simple dwarf icon in the center of a stonework grid.  

An admittedly simple motif, but one that I hope to use in other games and other scales as well.  

Playing around with some potential scatter and Hobgoblin paint schemes this evening. My plan is give the dwarven pillar a similar baleflame green cast as the burning skull held by the wizard. Given the decisive lack of foilage in dwarf mountain-homes, clusters cursed rune stones felt like an interesting alternative to provide scatter for the board. 

Stay tuned for more of Warhammer 40,000's narrative battle reports with Part 3 of the Hamlis Valley Campaign, and for other updates on the Pride of Lions Playtest.

Your Favorite Madman

 

Hobby: DnD Dragonborn

A few weeks back my friend Chris, of Sippin' on Paint Water fame, and now Lord and Commander of the blogs Gloria in Morte and Upon the Muster Field, were browsing around the LGS and he challenged me to a friendly painting competition of some of the pre-primed D&D miniatures. Here are the results!



First up is my rusty dragon knight, very fashionable in this seasons shade of green cloak

And Next up is Chris' gleaming cold-blooded paragon of faith and fury. Hefting a lovely political statement about how he feels with regards to endangered species as a shield.

Thanks for Reading!

-Your Favorite Madman-