by General Sloth

In the (Dead)zone

A massive spike in COVID cases in our area put the Deadzone campaign on hold for a couple months, but we were finally able to restart.

This is my… third? time playing Deadzone. I cannot convey how quick this game gets you into the action. Like turn 1 bullets are flying! Here’s deployment:

Deployment

You can see his sniper is in perfect position, camped next to VPs, and with great LOS to my troops when the ambush is sprung. Oh, and he won init, had AP ammo, and he rolled an extra shoot action with his command dice… So the game begins, before I’ve even done anything, with 13 attack dice raining down on my strike force…

And nothing happened! Defender Shields! Medic! Bastion! Survive 4+! And some bad rolls on my opponent’s part meant the Enforcers just shrugged off the Ranger’s shots. I think by the end of the turn I had one Wound on a model but I found a MediKit and quickly patched them up.

But relief quickly turned to sorrow as the GCPS Rangers and Monocycles were able to sweep out and snag all four objectives on the first turn. (The action is fast and furious in this game!) Since we were playing with only 125 points each, my opponent racked up 8 out of the 14 VPs needed to win right out the gate. Eeep!

But I still had a shot. Frankly, I did not see a path to victory, but I did think I could pull off a draw, with both teams hitting 14 VPs on the same turn. So I moved my troops up for a turn 2 assault that would put everything on the line…

Turn 1 moves

And wow did it pay off! Good command dice got me almost everything I wanted. My Peacekeeper Captain leaped into hand-to-hand with the Ranger on the left flank and… it was ugly.

Despite the AP3 Thermal Mines, Capt. Dagwood was unscratched. The Ranger not so much. Then an Advance command got Dagwood to the Marine Monocyclist on the adjacent objective and *<splatter noises>*. 2 enemies down and two objectives captured in a single activation is pretty great.

On the opposite side, my Incinerator-toting Enforcer, “Hot Dog”, set a poor soldier on fire.

Flames. Flames! Flaaaames…on the side of my face, breathing, breathless, heaving breaths.

Meanwhile, Pvt. Hämrye rocketed over to the other GCPS Monocycle and decapitated the rider.

Thanks to dice luck and a lot of Armor, only Hot Dog took a wound in return fire. At the end of Turn 2 the score was 10-9! I was catching up! Heck, could I even win it?

My opponent thinks not.

On the third and final turn, my Captain ripped a Tactical Drone apart giving me another 2 VPs. And I currently held 6 VPs worth of objectives… And my Assault Enforcer was in position to kill the sniper and snag 4 more VPs! If I’m really lucky I can win 21-10! Dare I hope?

As the turn went on, that margin got smaller and smaller. First my Assault Enforcer, Lt. Reuben, landed next to the Ranger, who stuck a Thermal Mine on Reuben’s chest and kicked him back off the ledge… OK, well I can still win 17-13. Then the GCPS leader assaulted my other Assault Enforcer, Pvt. Hämrye, on an objective with yet another Thermal Mine and I whiffed on my rolls. Hopes dashed. The turn ended 15-17.

@*&$# this guy

Fun game, crazy fast and intense, big luck swings but still tactical and accessible. Good times. And I was very happy to end up with a draw in that matchup.

by General Sloth

The Archers of Count von Goghstein – WIP

I’ve had a bunch of Undead sitting around for ages, so it’s time to make some progress. After my test scheme inspired by Van Gogh’s “Vase with Asters and Phlox” painting, I’ve decided to run with it for the rest of my skeletons. The overall approach is to have exaggerated shadows, a very limited color palette focused around red, and to be relatively fast and tabletop quality.

Work in progress.

Next steps are:

  • Review for missed details
  • Heavy rust on metal
  • Tone down yellow in arrow shafts (brown glaze?)
  • Basing

Rebasing these Runewars figs was a huge pain. They had to be clipped off their thick-ass bases and squeezed to sorta fit on 20x20mm squares. They won’t rank up properly, so I’ll need to make some decorative spacers to fill out a movement tray. And the details! So many different little bits and bobs and folds.

Just for my own records, here’s what I did:

Primer: Zenithal, but in a funky order – reddish-brown first from the side, then white from the top, then black from the bottom

Bone: Wraithbone layered

Cloth: Red Gore glazes w/ Carroburg Crimson + Nuln Oil wash

Black Leather: Black + Xereus Purple, Mechanicus Grey edge highlight

Bows: Scorched Brown, Mournfang Brown

Arrows: Snakebite Leather (original). Feathers: Wraithbone, White Scar

Metal: Black, Chainmail Metal

Base:

Flock/Grass:

by General Sloth

Deadzone Reckoning

The club got really stoked about the new v3 of Deadzone, with the promise of fast-play exciting skirmish and no tape measures. I’m not really into scifi but always happy to throw dice with friends, so when my mate MP offered up his Space Marine collection to use as Enforcer proxies, I was in. JR went crazy with his 3D printers and churned out two entire tables worth of terrain, AC crafted a campaign structure and narrative, and I made some campaign tracking spreadsheets.

(Just one of JR’s technicolor tables. Note how I strategically chose the tableside with the sun at my back to demoralize my opponent. Muhwahahaha!)

Now, there’s a delightful story seeded by AC that feels positively Coen Bros-esque as six different factions unwittingly stumble into each other and things go sideways, but I can’t do it justice here. For now, I’ll just say that my opponent’s Asterians were attempting to capture an old Armory (Scenario 8: Occupy, but with Fortified Outpost as the stakes for reasons) and I needed to stop them and hold it for my own ends.

From my Battle Force I assembled a Strike Team with Jump Packs and Defender Shields galore with a mix of ranged, AP, and assault weapons. My plan was to get onto the objective tower ASAP, rack up VPs every turn, and weather the ridiculous Asterian shooting. If they closed in to contest the tower, I’d probably have the advantage in close combat.

(Back to front, left to right: Hämrye, Reuben, Monto Crispy, M. Croak, Bombmi, Capt. Dagwood, Gyro. For some reason one of the scrolls on a model has “Ham” and “Rye” written on it, so now my names are all sandwich themed.)

My opponent certainly had a say in that plan. Yeesh! Despite my confidence in SV 4+ HP 2 models, he still got 3 kills pretty quick. But once the close combat models got stuck in and the Medi-Bot fortified the tower, I just barely eked out a win.

Sort-of! Despite Deadzone being a pretty elegant system there are some fiddly bits with a learning curve, so we got quite a few things wrong. It could have been anyone’s game, so we’ll leave it asterisked.

(We couldn’t actually fit the model through the window so we just left him here for a turn. He ordered two tacos and a diet Coke.)

It was a Pyrrhic victory anyway. Post-game unfortunately resulted in one dead troop (RIP M. Croak), another crippled, and all my profit going into replenishing supplies. Good thing I’ve got a deep bench to draw from!

by General Sloth

To the Smallest!

I had a fantastic game last night, one of the best in a long time: my first real game of To the Strongest! I gotta say, my buddy and I loved it!!! It’s smart, fun, engaging, accessible, gamey while still feeling historical.

We fought a battle inspired by the very beginning of the Marcomannic Wars. Around 166 CE, the Langobardi and Lacringi tribes crossed the Danube River with 6000 warriors. Hemmed in by other tribes as climate change or other factors forced a jumble of migrations and conflicts, these two tribes had decided that their best hope lay in carving out a chunk of Roman territory. The local Roman forces were quickly marshalled and defeated the invaders.

Well, that’s what happened historically, at any rate.

The Langobardi hold the left flank, and the Lancringi the right. About 1/3rd shieldwalls, 1/3rd skirmishers, and 1/3 cavalry. Across are the Legio I Adiutrix vexillations flanked by auxilia, and on the Roman left is the Ala Ulpia contariorum and sagittarii.

In our game, the main Roman battle line advanced towards the German center, which was pressed up against their camp and baggage train. If the Romans could fight their way through to the enemy camps, it would be an easy victory. But whether it was because of sodden ground, or the terrifying shouts of the barbarian hordes, or because my prefectus was actually just three sloths in a toga, the legionary advance was slow and disjointed and the line needed to be reformed multiple times.

Slowly advancing… To the Strongest forces you to make tough prioritization choices, and while I was focused on holding my flanks together, my center lagged. Legion units are from Irregular, lone hero is Heroics & Ros.

The delays were crucial. The German advantage in cavalry allowed them to strip or bypass the Roman flanks and beeline for the castrum. When the Romans saw their own camp being sacked and enemies threatening to encircle their line, they withdrew from the field. My opponent got a well-deserved win.

Despite commanding the heights, the Roman bowmen couldn’t hold against the German cavalry who would go on to capture the Roman camp. Minis: Cavalry are Irregular, bowmen and hero Heroics & Ros.
While on the opposite flank, more cavalry threatened to break through. The Romans quickly redeployed to halt this danger, but it thinned their line elsewhere. Minis: Irregular.

Command and control in TtS reminds me a lot of Warmaster, with a terrifically tense push-your-luck mechanic that forces you to make lots of difficult, meaningful decisions (and you can always blame bad luck if you choose poorly). It’s also played on a gridded battle mat which dramatically facilitates play without feeling too boardgamey. It’s going to be hard going back to tape measures.

We played with 6mm, but with our middle aged men eyes & bourbon-tinted vision, we found it hard to easily recognize unit types from across the table. But we really loved the mass battle look and scale. So we’re going to order a variety of 10mm models as tests to see if that’s a happy compromise.

Either way, TtS is definitely going to be a project for our club in 2022!

by General Sloth

Christening the The Iron(y) Fleet

A friend of mine gave me a fleet of Armada dwarf ships in a cruel and successful attempt to lure me into yet another wargame system that I’ll play like twice a year.

As always, I started off with a “quick” painting strategy. Black -> Drybrush dark gray highlight -> All over metallic drybrush -> Black wash. Pick out a couple details in gold. Clear plastic base. Done! Yeah, they’ll look like dull bricks, but they’d be done in like 30 min each.

But then I started picking out more and more details (and there are a lot in these teeny tiny sculpts!).

I thought “What if I edge highlighted every single armor plate? And had blackened cotton coming out the smokestacks? And magnetized bases? And sculpted waves on the bases? And…”

Feeling unsure, I showed my basic vs enhanced versions to some people, and all agreed the result was worth the extra time. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Here’s the test ship. I’m now on track for 2+ hrs per ship.

Paint Log

Primer: Black

Undercoat: Createx 002 Wicked Black airbrush

Armor: Light drybrush dark gray highlight -> all over Boltgun Metal drybrush -> Boltgun Metal edge highlight

Gold Detail: Brazen Brass

Unit ID Colors: Various

Wash: Nuln Oil (matte)

Stone: Progressively lighter grays drybrushed with some colored washes in-between for variation

Base: Sculpted using cheap airdrying clay mixed with PVA, water, and a tiny amount of sanded grout. I… can’t remember the colors I used on the water. Sigh…

by General Sloth

Centaur de France

I spent part of my Bastille Day basing this model. You know what’s great? Having friends with 3d printers who just randomly send you cool models, and then having other friends who are waaaaaay faster at hobbying than you and are happy to paint it for you. That’s right, all I did for this model was base it to match the rest of my Nature army! That is some top tier General Sloth laziness.

I especially love the face work. Nice job on the eyes and lips, Matt!

Oops, don’t look at the tufts. Looks like they need touch ups.

The mini comes from the Iain Lovecraft Feywood series. I just don’t understand the tits & ass elf chicks in bikinis thing (seriously, guys, there’s this thing called “The Internet” that has all the titillation you will ever need), but the rest of the line is pretty good.

by General Sloth

Van Gogh Nuts

I recently watched this Vince Venturella video about mining Vincent Van Gogh’s “Vase with Asters and Phlox” for miniature painting inspiration. I’ve been in a bit of a rut using the same recipes that I’ve been using for years, and I have a huge pile of skeletons in need of a new paint scheme, so I decided to give it a go.

Van Gogh’s “Vase with Asters and Phlox” and Sloth’s “Skellie with Axe and Flux”

It’s not meant to be a literal translation, just exploring some of the ideas in Van Gogh’s painting. I cranked up my shadows in ways that are wildly unrealistic but evocative. I stuck with a mostly monochromatic palette – there’s red in everything. And I tried to use paint-as-texture using hatching & stippling to separate the cloth from the rust. Add a dash of blanchitsu grunginess

All of this in a somewhat speedpainty-ish mode, since I have a boatload of undead to go. I’ve got a few ideas to make it better and faster.

by General Sloth

Loooooongbowmen

Alternatively called “Archers of Loaf” but I wasn’t sure anyone would get a 1990s indie rock band reference.

Second batch of miniatures that I started 25 years ago is now finished. My goal was to finish all the retouching in 10 hrs, but it took me 15.

To recap: These are 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles Bretonnians that I got in the starter set around 1996. Then-Private Sloth slapped down some base colors and that was that. I think in the 2000s I put down a flesh wash and some sand but didn’t finish them.

I have a lot of projects in various states of completion and it drives me crazy. Units abandoned from games that never caught on with my friends, models that just didn’t perform as well as I’d hoped, or projects that were just too challenging or boring and so I got burnt out.

My goal during the 2020 pandemic is to get at least some of these projects finished to a tabletop or tabletop+ standard, but also to do it as quickly as possible. I still have a really hard time turning off my completionist brain that wants to paint and detail ALL THE THINGS, but I’m getting better.

I think I’m going to work on the knights next. Here are a couple I started 25 years ago. That’s… gonna be a lot of retouching.

Paint Log

I might get some command models for these archers, so for my records here’s a paint log:

Primer: White

Skin: ??? -> Flesh wash -> Dwarf Flesh -> blackline wash

Shirt: Blood Red -> Carroburg Crimson wash -> Blood Red -> + Yellow

Pants: That ancient 1990s Citadel dark blue with no label, and the less dark but equally ancient Citadel mid-tone blue with no label

Shoes: Abaddon Black -> + Mechanicus Standard Grey

Helm: Boltgun Metal -> Nuln Oil Gloss wash -> Boltgun Metal -> Chainmail

Leather: Scorched Brown -> Mournfang Brown -> Snakebite Leather

Bow: Snakebite Leather? -> Agrax Earthshade wash -> micron pen Brown grain -> very thin glaze Balor Brown

Arrows: ???

Base: Amsterdam Burnt Umber -> + Amsterdam Burnt Sienna -> + Americana Sand

Flock/Grass: Woodland Scenics Turf -> Static Grass -> Army Painter Woodland Tuft -> various flowers, clump foliage, and debris

by General Sloth

Darken the Skies

Finished the rest of the Bretonnian archers! I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I started them 25 years ago, with just a basic base coat, and I finally went back and finished them to my current tabletop standard. I normally don’t paint blocks of infantry because I just get bored out of my mind, it turns out I just need a couple decades in between layers.

I had one fun little experiment – testing out bows. The third one here was the winner:

I used a brown Micron pen to draw in some wood grain lines, and then gave it an ultra-thin glaze with a light tan to blend it in. Micron pens are totally cheating.

And now to do it all over again with the second unit…

by General Sloth

Then and Now: Bretonnian Archers

I started these miniatures waaaaay back in 1996, in the 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles starter. But I only did a basic paint job, and then I sort of fell out of the wargaming & painting hobby other than the occasional RPG miniature. I finally got back into it in a big way around 2015.

The model on the right is more-or-less my original paint job.

The model on the left (with the broken bow – I like to use damaged models as test pieces) is what happens with an extra hour of highlighting and shading.

I didn’t actually notice much difference until I put them side-by-side! I have like 40 of these fuckers, so I dunno if I’ll commit to doing this for all of them, but it’s nice to see what the extra effort yields.