Shadows of Brimstone - For a Few Dark Stone More

     We picked up from the campaign we started way back in May. That is to say that we continued our paused mid session game with Rachel joining at the halfway mark. SoB makes it easy to add player mid way with it's scaling difficulty by using the next tier of monster cards available. With 3 players, the game gives you a free revive, as if you had a had extra life instead of the 4th player. To fit Rachel in, we just removed our revive token.

Hmmm.... I was going add some pictures of the play through but it seems I might've deleted them off my phone to make room for Rosie pictures. 

After clearing the summoning circle of enemies, the daring adventures pushed further into the mine. A stench intruded on the party's olfactory receptors, the marshal shines the lantern into the room. They pause, gasping as they see a massarce unfold before their eyes. Several bodies were scattered about in various pieces. Seeing as I lost or deleted the pictures I took, here is my daughter's reenactment. Okay, I didn't actually ask tell her that, it was just a rare moment she laid on the ground beside me. Normally she doesn't do that, you know the sitting still thing.

    This room drained sanity while in it, but also let us search for extra loot. Our adventurers must have smelt dark stone on the other side of the wall because one of the events allowed us to use our whole turn to smash the wall which would guarantee a clue on the next tile we reveled. Rachel usually leaves us to explore the two times this card has shown up and in hind sight, maybe triggering the final boss beside the corpse sanity draining room wasn't the super best idea. 

    The final encounter was a Goliath (think Cthulhu's prettier step brother), a handful of Stranglers and I believe tentacles or void spiders. The Goliath drains sanity for being on the same tile or adjacent tiles to him, which with the room of 1000 corpses, spelt a bad time for the party. We all ended up going insane. I thought would be the end of our characters, but instead the horrors of the mines escapes, destroying a random amount of buildings in town.

    This was temporary for our next visit, we rolled 3 destroyed out of 6 I believe. Everyone who was knocked out also had to roll on the Madness table. These insanities can be cured at the church, which I believe my brother Shawn was able to do. Lloyd Bristle, my character got Delusional, which makes the next rolls on the madness table worse and gives a -1 to Exorcism rolls at the church. Meaning that I could die trying to curse myself of it if I rolled a 1. A bit of delusion didn't hurt anyone, it's better then death. 

    We all levelled up, gaining new abilities, picking one of three paths to potentially follow or mix them up as you go. Once done with our town visit we started the second mission, but didn't get too far. 

    That was in September and since then I painted up the Doc, both genders, and the Undead Gunslingers and his outlaws. We also haven't played again since, but when we do we will have to prepared for some ranged enemies!

    Was thinking Rachel would be interested in playing the nurse, but she seems to be enjoying playing the Saloon Girl, beside the connotation that her character is a sex worker. 

Billowy smoke for effect

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Uh, I don't know, actual content in like three months? I have my poor buying habits, what I have been playing and painting to cover. Also what next for the rest of the year.

Shadows of Brimstone - Core Set

 In April, I finished off my City of the Ancients Core Set for Shadows of Brimstone, yes, definitely not very timely with this post. At the end of last year, I had two heroes and the Goliath to finish off. I painted up the female Drifter for good measure, not in the core set, for Rachel to play. 

All the beasties in the starter set

Goliath

Drifter (expansion), Gunslinger and Saloon Girl

    While painting the Saloon Girl, I realized her hat sits flat on her head in all of the artwork in and on the box. The sculpt looks more gothic lolita then what is portraited on the front of the box, or maybe that's me, either way, she has a jaunty hat in my version.

Reenactment of a "Holy Shit" moment in game

    Wednesday night, my brothers, Shawn and Nathan, Rachel and I played the tutorial scenario for Shadows of Brimstone. We started by creating characters, Shawn went with the Bandido, Nathan the Gunslinger and Rachel the Saloon Girl (mostly because I didn't print off the Drifter's character sheet). I was the U.S. Marshal, a character I played previous in a Solo play. Everyone gets a personal item to flesh out their character, Rachel's Saloon Girl had a journal as a personal item that will probably tell of the horrors we encounter, and as a warning to those who find it should we fail!

First Exploration, a summoning circle, well, time to go home

    The summoning circle has it's own Advanced rules, which we ignored for our first run of the game, a lot of the tiles have additional rules. I do like how you can ease yourself into learning the game and bring in more rules as you get more familiar with the basic mechanics.

The first, and only fight we had. 

Gunslinger Nathan unloaded his deadly pistol into the first Night Horror

Dynomite from the Bandido took out the last two, with some help from the Saloon Girl and Slinger

    Not much fighting in our first game, which was fine as some of the fun was scavenging on each tile. These are random events that add flavour to the adventure, like how Nathan's character found a dead body at the entrance of the mine full of bandages. We started calling him a mummy, as he had 3rd bandage token from character creation.

    On the second tile, one of the events was called Tracks in the Dust, letting our party smash down a seemingly dead end. This would guarantee a clue on the next time, collecting two clues would lead us to Dark Stone and the final encounter with the horrors.  So of course that's what all the characters did besides Rachel, who wanted to explore (and her strength wasn't very good anyways.) Along her journey she meant a prospector and a room full of steam, both could have led to encounters, instead had some loot. 

    While fighting the Night Horrors in the final battle, I used my inflated ego (my Marshal's badge) to buff everyone's shooting or combat. This must have went to my character's head, as even with 3 shots for my shotgun that rolls D8 (instead of D6), I got three 1's on my dice. 

    I didn't get any experience points for killing the horrors, but exploring, scavenging and healing others all give you XP. So healer characters can still level up with the more aggressive characters. The game also scales nicely, potentially adding 2 more characters to a game, though our kitchen could barely contain a small map with four players.

    I have a few expansions that I really want to get at, but I already have a Glottkin to paint for May. Was very tempted to just assemble one of them anyways, clearly, I trying to find anything to distract me from painting the Glottkin. But the real monster of May is the gray tide, oh and procrastination! 

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I did get some painting in on the Glottkin, probably should show off some of my work on it as well as post my Character of the Month for April & May (once I actually pick one and finish it!) The backstories are bogging me down a bit.

    

Regifting 2021

     Some of the painting that I finished over the last quarter of the year fell by the way side. So I present to you my rewrap up of 2021, painting edition. 

    First off, honourable mentions. The Goliath big baddie was almost done, which would have finished off the enemies in the core set (still two more heroes to paint).  The gender swap drifter is from a character expansion pack, a more respectable character then the "Saloon Girl" that is in the base set. I do enjoy that Flying Frog Productions has made the effort to create alternate genders for all their heroes. Even if you don't want to buy them all, they still have character sheets of them that can be printed off. 

    Did anyone ask for more Heroclix repaints? Well too bad, that's what I got. Mostly X-men, with a random gorilla minion thrown in, which will go good with the Gorilla Grodd I just picked up, along with several more mono pose monkeys.

    Next we have the Shadows of Brimstone monsters, I had some heroes pictures from the front, but I must have deleted them from the phone due to poor lighting. Ooops! Oh well, there will be a group shot of them all soon.

Just your regular spiders

with sharp teeth!

Stranglers

Night Terrors

Time for some dynamite!

    Looking at my painted vs purchased is not very good this year. I have painted 105 figures, against the 476 I had bought! Yikes! Definitely going to cut back on those old model lots that I find. 

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Alright, 2021, is official over on this blog, let's welcome 2022!

Wrap up of 2021

     Where does the time go? Already another year in the bank, cashed by our elected officials at the expense of our frontline workers. I feel for all workers that needed support for someone to be on their side, instead of heaping on more of a burden onto our flimsy healthcare system. Blah! ANYWAYS!

    This year was a lot of changes for Rachel and I, one of the individuals that I supported at work passed away, Rachel's mom was diagnosed with cancer, we had a baby (9 months and counting), and moved into a house that we bought with money and signatures. Yes, what a year it was! Hopefully we don't need to do anymore of that in 2022!

    So what did I accomplish hobby wise? Well, I did finish off a lot of the Slaanesh in my "less crazy plan of 2021", the only thing that didn't get finished off were the 3 Fiends. I did paint up the Lord of Pain in the Shadows and Pain box. Maybe this Slaanuary I will continue start on the Hellstriders or Daemonettes that came in that box? Not going to lie, those new models in the Christmas battleforce are tempting.

    PrimEVO models were also on the desk, painting up game for the tribes to hunt. Space Wolves Kill Team was created with the 2018 rules, might work in the new rules, but I doubt I will pick them up. Picking up Shadows of Brimstone later in the year, I have almost finished the Core Set, just haven't posted the results (was hoping to completely finish it, but house moving makes it hard to hobby). Oh and then there was the Heroclix, that I rebased for Super Mission Force.  

    As for terrain, I didn't get as much as I would have liked to get done, only finishing off a 3D printed house and some scatter terrain for Rangers of Shadowdeep. 

    I did a bit of rule reading, but it was about new systems. Like Song of Blades and Heroes, Advanced Heroquest? I know, probably not going to commit on that one, but sometimes I do look at the simple models and want to buy or print some of the original ones. Why? Not sure, I have only played the game once, and long after it came out. Super Mission Force, and Homebrew rules for Space Hulk. Look, I said read stuff, I went for quantity instead of quality. For Space Hulk, I would like to make 3D junk made terrain, boards that would actually fit a standard 40mm Terminator. With less ability to play in person these days, I am gravitating towards solo play games and low cost rule sets, not that I really have had any time to play these days.

    This seems like a lot of buying all at once. I mean don't get me wrong it was, this was exchanged in the summer and I traded for my space marine half of the dark imperium. Wasn't really into the Primaris Space Marines, instead, I found my original love, Dark Eldar circa early 2000s. The army that got me into the hobby.

    

    So they aren't all old models, but the vast majority are. Break down as follows.

• 10 x Kabalite Warriors
• 26 x 2nd edition Kabalite Warriors
• 2 x Incubi
• 5 x Metal Incubi
• 7 x plastic Wyches
• 1 x Metal Archon
• 1 x Raider
• 4 x Jetbikes

    The Raider and Jetbikes will most likely form some sort of patrol detachment, the bikes are newer and I have a set of three to add to them. Might be a fun project for later. Some of the aged models I will be reposing for Space Hulk, fingers crossed I can make it work in that rule set.

    Oh, I did buy a PDF copy and physical copy of Reign in Hell. A collaboration project between Uncle Atom and Vince Venturella that was released earlier this year. Which got me to buy....

     Just a couple of miniatures from ebay for converting, a lot of the design of these characters are dark (looking at you scarecrow the hanging baby) and would make for good demons with a fresh coat of paint. Call of Cthulhu comes to mind for the bug like creatures. But what about the house? Or the Lion Rampant? Can't say at the moment. I removed the duplicates for better up close pictures. 

      I ordered these back in October, must get better at upkeep on the blog. I know one of my new years goals. 

    The last of the minis I bought was setup back in November when we were moving houses, so I asked to postpone dropping them off till we were actually settled in the house. And that, is.... more Heroclix!

The whole gang!

    

    Someone locally was selling off a giant collection and had most of what I wanted. When I had some down time in the fall I would look through HCrealms to find the sculpts I enjoyed. I would also focus on getting teams and themes together. Super Mission Force has rules for Paragon heroes, the equivalent of Superman, counting as 2 and a 1/2 Standard heroes, might work for the Sentinels, making it a bit unbalanced with 2 of them being 5 standard heroes. In that case, why not use 5 standard heroes. SMF recommends 4 standard heroes as it's balanced teams for both sides. Alternatively, they could be constructs, to run them as standard heroes. I digress, should break down hero building in another post. 

Original X-men

X-men Animated Series

Oops all Thors!

DC Heroclix

    There that's basically all for this year, and like every year, I am never on time for my wrap up, waiting till a week into the year to start a post about it. Oh well, some year, I will post before the year is done.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Logically, I will be doing a look forward to 2022. Slaanuary will definitely be one of the first projects I will be doing. Rachel and I have been forming a list of games we would like to play old and new, as well as getting them out onto the table twice a month, instead of the normal zero. Check what games we will be trying out for the new year on the next post!    

A Project that Clix

     While on my parental leave I had sometime thinking about the Heroclix, of all things, that I have and what their fate should be. My first thought - besides actually PLAYING heroclix, was to re-base select models to use in Heroscape, something that might one day be of interest to Rosalind? Or anyone else just starting to learn their first tabletop wargame. A quick google search took me to a large database of fan made Heroscape cards for playing super heroes in the game.

     This project I was pretty excited about while away from all my miniatures. Pondering up which villains and super hero squad I would like to paint up for the game. The Sinister Six against Spider-man that has called in the X-men for backup? A rampaging Red Hulk needs to be contained before he destroys have of Manhattan? Could try out just about anything.

    After a bit of jumping in and out of rabbit holes, I stumbled upon Angry Piper's blog. He has a bunch of battle reports, repaints of heroclix, forgotten heroes challenges - sculpting miniatures for lesser know characters in comics. Between Angry Piper and  Carrion Crows Buffet they also use a bunch of good looking Pulp Figures, probably will pick some up eventually. After reading a couple scenarios, it prompted me to pick up Super Mission Force 2nd which he uses for the battle reports. This systems seems like a lot of fun and had lots of creative options for fleshing out any super person you could think of, whether that be an existing trademarked character owned by The Mouse, or fan made. 

    The other side effect of looking through my heroclix, is that I have started borrowing comics from the library, Green Lantern and X-men mostly. For the most part, Yellow (use fear to control) and Green (harness willpower) Lanterns are arch enemies as they are basically polar opposites, but there was a great arc which Guy Gardener, your typical 50's beat cop who plays by his own rules, fights the biggest Yellow Lantern Arkillo without power rings, toppling the top dog to make the others in the corps to fall in line. Majority of what I repainted was heroclix, hope to branch out more... just need to prioritize my collection.

Top: Artocitus - leader of the Red Lanterns, Red Hulk, Arkillo - Second in command of the Yellow Lanterns, Kilowag - Instructor for new Green Lantern recruits 

Bottom: Saint Walker and Guy Gardener - One of four earth lanterns

    Later Green Lantern comics introduced the spectrum of colours each lantern using a specific emotion to create their constructs. Red - Rage, Orange - Greed, Green - Will, Blue - Hope, Yellow - Fear, Purple - Love, and Black - Death, which isn't an emotion but is metal AF!

Some of the other clix I was thinking about rebasing/painting. Still figuring out base sizes for models. With so many clix losing their base, their dials will make great damage dials. I should be busy throughout the winter now. Definitely don't need to BUY anything else.

    Throughout Covid the Regina Central library has been offering free 3D printing, I printed off some smaller things a few months ago. While in Fort Saskatchewan, I might've went a bit overboard with my submissions.... and well, they started charging for the service when they were finished. Shows me not to abuse the system! On the plus side, I got some really good dungeon crawling tiles and graves for some spooky ghosts that might hit the desk in October!

Caverns for In-Person D&D someday...

Close up for detail

    Some more detailed items turn into garbage with the filament printer that the library uses. This sarcophagus turned out well, the corpse has seen better days though! Expect to see these tombs on the Sorrowmourn Choir, Spooktober is coming!

    Previously, I had printed out some more traditional dungeon tiles with which I painted in grays. I wanted these caverns to glow a bit magically, hoping to add some vegetation to the walls, and some mushrooms, probably made with green stuff. 

Shadespire LOS blocking terrain featuring a friendly Gallanghann

    The rest is kind of a hodgepodge of what I have painted up, Orson Krennic had been mostly painted and in pieces on my desk for sometime now, his segmented body laughing at my lack of faith in the Dark Side no longer! The dwarves have been finished for a bit and the Blackstone Fortress Heroes I was hoping to finish off the Cultists with them but they still need more work. 

Krennic with his bodyguard dwarves.

    I was a bit lazy and didn't feel like getting out the BSF tiles for a photo shoot, so Gotfret and Servitor X-101 are hanging out on a Heroclix mat.

    The last thing to mention is a project that I hope to finish for October - which would be Shadows of Brimstone! This dungeon crawler is set in the wild west, where dark stone has been discovered in the near by mines outside of Brimstone. It has been found that these stones have a magic to them. Sadly, this power comes with a price, an explosion rips open a rift between worlds. Now unspeakable demons are flooding out of the mines, it's up to the heroes to close the portals to other worlds. Why not loot some of the precious stones at the same time as well?

Six Tentacles finished.

   We also played Root in our garage at the start of the month, why our garage? Because it seems that our cute furry cats are deadly to my eldest brother, Shawn. 

Here you have the typical "still on speaking terms" picture before the game.

    This was a learning game for both Shawn and Nathan. Shawn played the Marquise de cat and Nathan, the Eyrie dynasty. According to the game, they are the least complex. I would disagree in some way, as the other two factions aren't that hard to handle. 

    

    Eyrie have decrees which dictate what you must do on your turn, otherwise your leader disgraced and you lose victory points. Clearings are broken up into different animals, fox, rabbit, mouse or bird (wild card). One card must be added to the decree each turn, or more if you are insane. Bird cards do help, but they also cost you victory points for each used in the decree. As more turns go on, you have more and more potential that you can't build in a fox clearing as you might have already done that three turns in a row and there aren't any to claim or you can't battle in a certain clearing as the enemies were picked off by that blasted Vagabond's crossbow! Eyrie is simple to understand, but you definitely need to plan your next turn. We did help Nathan out as it was his first game, but this is a tough game to do a tutorial game as one faction can really take off if you aren't watching - like every time Rachel is playing the Woodland Alliance. First games you shouldn't be watching the points anyways right? It's about picking off those industrial cats with a well placed crossbow bolt from the Vagabond.

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I am getting close to finishing my painting of the core models in Shadows of Brimstone, contrast paints help speed up the process, but it doesn't help when I find more models at Dragon's Den to buy!? Oh well, will most likely get in a solo play soon.