Month / September 2019

by General Sloth

Tray Bien: gem trays for minis storage

Several months ago, I was trying to open my front door with a 6’x4′ battlemat slung over a shoulder, backpack with books and accessories, box of minis in one hand, and fumbling for my keys with the other and…

I dropped my box.

I was absolutely gutted.

The damage was pretty extensive. I didn’t want to fucking hobby for weeks. Hell, months later, I still haven’t repaired all the damage. It was soul-crushing.

Fallen_soldiers

Just some of the damage. Rest in Pieces, brothers.

Obviously, I needed a better transport system. I also wanted a better storage system, as my shelves were getting pretty overloaded, too.

Well, two weeks ago, I randomly came across this article on using cases for the gem and jewelry trade for miniature storage. As of today, I have a new wheeled transport case that can easily carry two entire Kings of War armies and a whole bunch of compact trays, lined with metal for all my magnetically-based models.

Trays_in_action

Stackable trays in action

Shelves

My storage capacity has doubled.

Here’s what you need to replicate my setup:

  • 2″ stackable trays ($2.85 ea)
  • 4″ trays ($6.10 ea)
  • Carrying case (I got the large canvas one – $21.98)
  • Big ass 4’x4′ sheet of galvanized steel metal (bring a magnet to the hardware store to make sure you’re getting the right kind – $40)
  • Big ass tin snips ($20)
  • Magnetic bases (as required)

IMPORTANT: The 2″/4″ heights are the *exterior* heights. The inside is a little smaller. The 2″ tray is just big enough for most standard minis, unless they have spears or banners or are waving their swords up in the air like they just don’t care. You’ll need the 4″ tray for those.

Snipping

This part sucks.

Then spend a really tedious and somewhat painful afternoon snipping the steel into tray-liner size. Optional: Should probably spray some kind of sealer on the steel to minimize rust. I haven’t figured out what’s the best solution yet, but they will rust and shed powdery red stuff all over your models if you don’t treat them.

The Shake Test

So how well does it actually work? Let’s find out!

You can see a couple models come loose. But it’s only the top-heavy ones and it takes some serious jolting. In the wheeled transport case, it’ll be fine, especially for plastic models.

So far it seems like a pretty great solution for ~$100. I’ll try to follow up in a few months and see how I still like it after heavy use.

by General Sloth

A Riverguard Runs Through It (WIP)

It’s been two weeks since my last Vanguard “Your Club, Your Story” update. After all the things that went wrong while preparing my Riverguard models – spotty primer, too dark Contrast paint, even darker wash – I had been dreading picking them back up.

The cure for procrastination? Dreading something else even more and procrastinating on *that*. So rather than deal with some frustrating, scary, and looming deadlines I picked up my Riverguard again. So… progress?

Riverguard_2

Skin was layered up 3 shades of green and I think I salvaged that fiasco alright.

Went with bronze weapons and armor that I will discolor with verdigris – something I’ve never painted before and I’m super-excited to try out!

I’m not happy with the shields. The “dusty” spotty primer job and my drybrushing really show up here. Hoping an Agrax Earthshade wash evens it out.

Started on the leather bits. Liking where it’s going, will give it a highlight or two. Really, everything needs a few more layers and a wash at this point.

No clue what to do with the cloth areas, like the loincloths. Most of the other models in the warband will have pale blue skin or other splashes of blue, so maybe that?

by General Sloth

Ice & Iron: a chilly reception

Our club has been eagerly anticipating the Ice & Iron summer campaign supplement but now that it’s in my hands, I’m a bit frosty about it.

Ice & Iron is basically Vanguard 1.5. It’s the first major update to the game since it came out a year ago, with a large amount of rebalancing and tweaks. The changes all seem really good. I’m actually a big fan of annual updates, so this is all great so far.

The book costs $25 USD and is 80 pages, about 50 of which are updated warband profiles. But the reason I need to take a chill pill is that it’s incomplete – it only lists the basic units found in the free PDFs, and the few non-basic units that received updates. So only 8 of the 14 Basilean models are in the book, 10 of 17 Trident Realm, etc.

coldshoulder

This means the book is fucking useless as a reference. I still have to use cards or Easy Army as a reference for those units not in the book, and since they have all the other units as well, I might as well just use them exclusively. Why on Earth would I want to pay $25 for a partial list of units in print? This was a great opportunity to release an up-to-date compendium useful for veteran and new players alike, and it was totally botched.

The core issue is Mantic can’t make up its mind whether it wants Vanguard to be free or not, and is experimenting in this limbo of “almost-but-not-quite free, we’ll be just inconvenient and aggravating enough that you’ll pay”. Which is a terrible goddamn business model. Let’s be abundantly clear: If I did not really, really, really like Vanguard’s gameplay, I would absolutely not tolerate this. When I recruit new people into Vanguard, I actually kinda wince in embarrassment over having to explain that they’ll need to navigate this bullshit:

No photo description available.

This is an abomination. (Source)

OK, enough of that rant. How about I give a review of the other ~30 pages?

There are four pages of fluff stories, which is nice. I’m not into the Mantic fluff yet, myself, but believe that it’s important to the game and glad to see it there. There’s also a couple pages of nice full page art and lots of great looking photos and illustrations sprinkled throughout. The art is very good, though while Mantic is generally pretty good about avoiding tits-and-ass chainmail bikini shit, the half-elf snow bunny berserker is not cool.

berserker_boobage

Nothing says “I dwell in the land of snowstorms and glaciers and bitter cold” like underboob.

I look forward to the rest of the Northern Alliance models being redesigned to look like Zardoz to match.

The remaining pages introduce a Weather Table, a new Exploration Table, 7 new scenarios and guidance on how to string them together for a campaign, and some tips on running bigger, smaller, or multiplayer games.

This is the meat of the book, and if it wasn’t for the missed opportunity with the warband section, I’d be pretty pleased. The scenarios are flavorful, and the Weather Table adds more variability and replayability. The revised Exploration Table is much smaller than the original, but it’s much more tightly themed. These are all nice touches and show how by tweaking a few simple levers players can bring a setting and story to life through the mechanics.

Overall verdict: The overall updates are really great. Vanguard 1.5 is going to be even better. But the book itself? Not worth the $25, Mantic can do better. If you want to play the campaign, get one copy for your club so you can get the like 10 pages that are needed, but it’s otherwise skippable.

Once we get playing, I’ll post more thoughts about the scenarios. Until then, stay frosty.

chill