Zombicide - The Horde

 If you procrastinate long enough, you can just post all the finished painted zombies at once. I blame this on being a completionist. Only 15 zombies! I can get a picture of all 63 zombies, that would look way cooler on the blog!

Here it is, all 64 zombies (and one necromancer) ready for a feast!

I was right, it does look cool! I went with the heroclix approach to painting. Major areas have paint but don't look too close at the details. These shambling undead won't be on the table long enough to enjoy the spotlight anyways.

The only miniatures left is the heroes to paint, I have 3 painted already. Three more for the base set, and the base set will truly be completed. Another 4 for the Wolfsburg expansion, completing it as well!

Painted: 139  Troops, 8 Mounted, 8 Monsters/ Vehicles, 12 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased: 195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

This total isn't quite accurate as I have made purchases since...... but I'll get to that!

Next on the Hobby Desk!

Other projects have crept onto the table... like a Mordheim lizardmen kitbash? If anyone saw that coming you are probably psychic and should get some lottery tickets.

 I have some old metal lizardmen that were added to a trade awhile back. Didn't have any plans for them so Mordheim is giving these minis a new lease on life. 

Slaves to Darkness - Choas Knight & Chaos Murauder Horsemen

         I have been playing in a Warcry narrative campaign with some other locals. I have only had 3 games since September when it started. This is mostly due to having to start after 9pm, after my daughter is sleeping. My warband doesn't have much of a story as I haven't had the will power to write something up. I was thinking it would be a scouting party made up of mostly cavalry with the members all worshiping their own gods, united to seek out artifacts of power. This is basically as far as I have gotten.

    I initially started the Scorned Anguish as a chaos murauder only warband. A chieftain as the leader, three horsemen and seven chaos murauder. The idea was to grow the warband from weak roots, acquiring supplies as they grew in power. 

    The first couple game I got knocked around hard as expected with a horde of low tier minions. I recruited a chaos knight after the first game. He hits much harder then a murauder, that's for sure.

Magnetized weapon arm for fun posing and transport

Probably could have glued the legs to the horse then magnetized the torso. I might do that instead in the future. With the knight painted, I focused on the horsemen that already had a few colours on them.

The three horsemen of the apocalypse... Tzeentch be damned!

    Yes, Tzeentch is missing, I enjoyed painting brighter colours for, probably could go a bit more experimental with Slaanesh horsemen, maybe have a body swap for a female or non binary rider. 

    These were just for Warcry. If I wanted to bring in say, a seeker of slaanesh, I would need to roll on the aftermath table for an ally or heroes. Might not be a thing that I see happen as the last 3v3 battle will be happening next Friday and I don't think I'll be able to get another game in till then.

Painted: 86 Troops, 8 Mounted, 8 Monsters/ Vehicles, 12 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased: 195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

Next on the Hobby Desk!

Zombies! I should get these zombicide minis off the table! They are just a horde of bodies, I need to just get a quick paint job on them to start playing. I have 8 done as well as 2 heroes and the necromancer. I focused on what as necessary to play the game.

Sending our love down the well

    Prairie Game Expo starts on October 5th, I am hoping to go set up Don't Look Back for some demos during the day. (It's too spooky to play at night!) With the trees finished, I went to work on my Annis Hag that I picked up from Sentry Box this summer.

    Killers have three qualities, MO, visage and trait. MO is how the Killer moves and is set up on the board. Visage is how the players react to the killer and traits are special rules, usually for how they attack. Mutilated is one of the visage which fits the Annis Hag perfectly. There also is ethereal, so I'll have to take a look for any spirits I could use. 

    

    Killers can be randomly rolled up or there are several pre-made in the rule book. In the new Core Rules, you can create your own Killer as well as let a player control the Killer. I haven't looked into the new rules much, maybe I will create a narrative setting with it's own killer! That is one of the reasons I picked up the new rules. 

    For the most part, I have all the terrain I need to play, but there is one plot (scenarios are called plots) that has the players preform a ritual at a well to summon an evil spirit killer. They, of course, instantly regret pissing off ancient evils and need to gather items to banish the ghost. Well, now I have a well. 

More like a pool for the Annis Hag

Killer Party!

Max beside the well

Max summoning the Old Ones.

    I'll probably paint up some more killers and some fences and bushes to add more variety to the board. As well as pick up a game mat to make sure everything stays flat.

Painted: 86 Troops, 4 Mounted, 8 Monsters/ Vehicles, 12 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased: 195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I was a bit out of sorts when I finished off these projects, I wasn't exactly sure where to go next. I settled on painting up some of my Warcry Slaves to Darkness warband as some of the new additions are just primed. This was before forming a solid plan for DLB.

Arcane Cataclysm, Grave guard, Merry and Pippin! Oh my!

     Before the long weekend, Rachel and I scheduled a trip to Saskatoon to visit one one Rachel's nursing friends. Nancy has two kids, both of which we haven't seen yet! So we all went to the zoo together. It would have been smart to actually take some pictures of the zoo, but you know, toddlers and exotic animals makes me forget. 

    Fun fact, the Saskatoon zoo has zebras which were seized from some farmer. Looks like he only got a fine of $2,800? Yet the province payed $120,000 to take care of them properly? Like how do you smuggle zebras into the middle of the prairies and why!? Sure, he could have painted some horses. Miniature ones.

    We also had a stop at Dragon's Den, well, two stops, as I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to pick up more miniatures. And the answer is always yes, just don't go looking at all the miniatures I still need to paint.

    Dragon's Den had their 3rd Edition Age of Sigmar sets marked down 40%, basically I get one half of the box for free. This box has Vanari Dawnriders and Tzaangors Enlightened on Disc, which I might trade/ sell as I am mostly interested in the foot troops. I was informed that the Tome of Champions 2020 had co-op/ solo rules, so the Tzeentch could be painted up as adversaries. 

    I played WarCry on saturday night with James, he is in a narrative campaign that I have been playing in. He was hoping to play Kill Team, I mention, like everytime that Kill Team is talked about, that he should check out Acolyte. What's Acolyte? Why it's a campaign setting which you are an acolyte with 3 followers, to start with, doing all the dirty work for an Inquisitor. It is heavily inspired by Rangers of Shadowdeep. Also solo and co-op, for those wanting to learn the rules to Kill Team without the pressure. Anyways, I traded some Sisters of Battle for the Hand of the Archon. 

    I also found a local selling some grave guard and Merry and Pippin in armour for a good price. There! Now I should be set for several more winters worth of painting. Oh, I am also changing the point system to just a model count, that way I am just painting and not pushing myself to paint specific items.

Painted: 86 Troops, 4 Mounted, 7 Monsters/ Vehicles, 11 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased:195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    As I mentioned before, I think I will be preparing for October, making a bit more terrain for Don't Look Back and painting up some killers. 

Can't see the axe murderer through the trees

 

    Started out with pizza wedge shapes, then moved to more circular bases, which I prefer more. These foam boards might need some hard MDF glued to their back so they don't curl so much, as extra glue doesn't seem to help. Planning to purchase a 3' X 3' game mat soon, these might turn into play mats for my daughter if I can't figure out a solution.

Focus on the cute toddler, not my super warped boards

    Last year, I flocked a large amount of cheap Christmas tree from Micheal's, which like most terrain projects, got shelved immediately after I finished half of it. I find that I am super pumped by the project while creating terrain, but the mess and clean up makes it tough for me to get started. It's much easier to paint miniatures at a desk.

    That said, Season of Scenery has now ended and I find myself wanting to continue working on terrain. Spooky season is coming up soon and I want to start playing the second edition of Don't Look Back. I already have Coyote Manor and a camp site painted, would be nice to have some fences and one of the plots ( the scenarios in DLB) has a well as it's main focus. With these trees, as they would primarily be used for DLB, I was thinking of making their bases a bit more spooky, with body parts or skeletal remains. For now they are just normal forest trees.

Painted: -20 (10 small terrain)

Purchased: -43

Total: -23

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    Wow that total looks great! I am almost in striking distance of being positive for my painting. Oh wait no, I might have picked something big up....

MESBG Battle Companies - Haradrim

     After playing a demo game of Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game a couple weeks ago and Rachel showing interest in a small Rohirram battle company  I had the drive to paint up more miniatures. Battle Companies only requires 8 Haradrim Warriors, half with arrows instead of the normal 30% that other factions have to abide by. I painted up two Haradrim Raiders as reinforcements for later games. 

    Next for MESBG, I will be painting up Rohirrim for Rachel. She asked for the standard greens and browns they usually have. Once I get back to painting the Haradrim, The Betray on foot and mounted will be my focus as he is a Hero of Valour, meaning he can lead 15 warriors and gives a bonus to poison weapons. Add a Ringwraith and I would have a 300 point army, a good start.

    Researching more about the Haradrim, I found a small snippet from their wiki stating that there were two blue wizards that went to Harad, Alatar and Pallando. The two missionaries were sent to convert those that worshipped Sauron. Not much is know of their fate, but they might've founded a cult of magic. 

    This one line opens up the idea of Haradrim that fight against Sauron. Given that I have lots of Haradrim Warriors, I could paint some up that fight against Sauron's forces and thus have a narrative for fighting against Sauron's minions.

Painted: 12 (8 troop, 2 mounted)

Purchased: -55

Total: -43

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    Terrain! I sweat! I have some terrain looking things on my desk (as well as some Slaves to Darkness for the warcry narrative campaign I started) but there is terrain!