Painting Progress: Awesome Amazons

I'm pleased to report I've finished two of the Bad Squiddo Games Amazons. These two are sold as Amazon Princesses. I used a couple of Gamer's Grass tufts to liven up the bases, too. (Annie at Bad Squiddo also stocks the tufts.)

These models are about 80% painted with contrast, with a few bits and bobs hand painted over the top. I was using them to practice faces. Both took two attempts. I'm most happy with the sword lady on the left.

The lady on the right had some more serious problems with my face paint attempts. At one point I'd messed it up so bad that the paint had gotten too thick and I had to gently scrape it off with a scalpel blade. She also looks a bit better in person than in the photos, where the shadows around her eyes aren't quite right.

Still, happy to have two more models ticked off the painting list, and looking forward to getting some more Amazons done, as I'm really enjoying painting these sculpts.

Small Company Saturdays: Battle Systems

One of my Not-Salute purchases was a couple of sheets of terrain from Battle Systems. They make card stock terrain that's pretty affordable. Now I've got it assembled, I thought I'd show it off and also give a small review.

I'm going to split the review into three parts. First, I'll show you the assembled kits and comment on them generally. Then, show you some photos with some miniatures and how they suit most games. Finally, I'll add a few comments on how they might work in a game of Infinity, which is particularly picky when it comes to terrain.

General Kit Review

I bought two kits. The first was the Industrial Turbine set.  It consists of a big industrial turbine, unsurprisingly, but also includes a nice bit of duct work that can attach to another building. This does highlight the first problem with these kits, which is that they work on the assumption that you're intending to have a full set of them, rather than integrate them into an existing terrain set up.

The other premise you're working with is that they're intended to be able to pack away flat again afterwards. This does mean that they slot together in some incredibly clever ways. If (like me) you're not intending to take them apart afterwards, it means that gluing them together is a pretty easy proposition, but you are left with some obvious "this is a kit" protrusions where the kit fits together.

The second kit I got was the Shipping Container set. Here you get a shipping container, a dumpster, three crates, four wooden pallets and a hatch. The crates and the shipping container all have a somewhat terrifying part to their assembly if you're gluing them because the bottom of them just fits edge on against the sides, meaning you've got to get it flat, and any glue creeping out the sides will end up sticking them to your work bench and then ripping the printed outer layer off. Ask me how I know that. (Fortunately it was on the shipping crate, and a gentle application of the nearest brown contrast paint just made it look like particularly deep rust. Also, it's on the bottom.)

All the kits try, where possible, to come with two designs that can be assembled either way out. You can have a clean or a rusty industrial turbine, and your shipping container can either be blue or rusty white.  Even the hatch has an open and shut side. This isn't possible with some of the kits, like the dumpster, due to how they assemble, but it does mean that you could buy duplicates of the kit and have a good variation across them.

Using the kits in games

They're fine.

I should probably add more detail than that.

The card stock they're made from is pretty thick, so in practical terms, it will actually stay where you put it. You don't want to be jogging your table particularly hard, but they'll not escape from where you put them if there's a strong breeze. Even when the printed side is facing the table, it's matte enough that it doesn't slip about. You might have a problem if you have a particularly glossy mouse mat material style gaming mat, but I didn't have one to compare to.

I put a few Infinity figures next to them and they didn't look particularly out of place. The shipping container definitely gives the impression that you'd need to duck to get into it, but that's not completely implausible. They'd certainly be usable on a battlefield without looking wrong. I'd certainly recommend them more strongly to someone playing in 25mm or 28mm than Malifaux, Infinity or modern 40K where the models tend towards being a little taller (especially the newer models).

So the scale is OK. They advertise as suited for 28mm - 35mm, but I'd put them as more suited for 25mm - 32mm, though I  do wonder if I'm just used to oversized scenery. Here's the shipping container placed next to two other manufacturer's shipping containers - on the left Reaper Bones, and in the middle is by Right Arm Labs. The Battle Systems container just seems a little small compared to them.

Infinity Play Considerations

So, turbine first. Placing a S2 silhouette next to it, it looks like it can provide full cover in a pinch, though you'd want to be careful about shots from elevations or being outflanked.

There is a silhouette marker behind this turbine. Full cover confirmed!

 As you can see, there's not much elevation needed before a firefight breaks out. Using this sort of sized terrain in large amounts may result in a more open table than intended.

The "shipping container is a little too small" hypothesis bears out when we put a size 2 silhouette marker next to it. It's just a little too small to definitively break line of sight. I'd not recommend using this on an Infinity board, especially for a tournament or club board where lots of people are going to play on it.

Here you can see the problem. The S2 marker just peaks out over the top of the container. It's going to lead to nothing but ongoing marginal line of sight calls when used.

As there isn't a 3mm square visible, but it's taller than the obstacle, I believe it allows you to vault onto it without a movement penalty, but someone can't target you while you're behind it. There's a weird potential loophole that argues you can then shoot out from it as your line of sight doesn't require you to have a 3mm square visible to see out. This is the sort of terrain where you'd want to make sure you talked it over with your opponent and got a clear agreement as to how you were playing it before you started. For the sake of a shipping container, I'd personally just leave it on the shelf and pick a different, slightly taller one!

In summary

Battle Systems provides good quality, clever, quite pretty card stock terrain at a pretty good price. They're a little generous on their scale recommendations and I'd gently steer people towards using slightly smaller scales with their stuff. I would broadly avoid buying their terrain for Infinity tables as some of them have size challenges with the Infinity silhouette system that means they don't quite provide as much full cover as you'd expect, and could possibly lead to some line of sight arguments.

Don't take my cautions too negatively, though. Infinity is a weird child with terrain at the best of times. If you're playing anything casually and want quick terrain that saves you a paint job, definitely pick this up.

Infinity Code One Battle Report - Supplies: Combined Army vs Yu Jing (Tabletop Simulator)

Corvus Belli recently released "Code One", a simpler set of rules for Infinity to help people get into the game in a more accessible way. They've made four armies available with these rules to start off with, based on the two most recent introductory sets. The rules are available to download for free, and there's an online army builder as well.

Experienced players have been looking at Code One thoughtfully because we know that the fourth edition of Infinity is coming in August 2020. Code One has been written with fourth edition (N4) in mind, so we expect quite a few of the rules changes to similarly apply to N4.

To see how it played, we decided to have a friendly game of Supplies using Tabletop Simulator. I took Combined Army, while my opponent brought Yu Jing. We chose to play the game at 30 points.

I took the forward deploying version of Ko Dali, and sent her hunting camouflage markers. The first target was a Guilang Skirmisher. It turned out to be a Hacker, and used an ARO action as Ko Dali approached to Spotlight her. The extra bonus proved super useful as the Guilang crit Ko Dali and killed her stone dead.

Total Reaction Remotes turn out to be really rather good. I advanced mine onto a side building and shot down one of the Yu Jing ARO pieces (I think a Ye Mao Missile Launcher).

Then came the Yu Jing first turn. A Tiger Soldier Spitfire arrived in a rather inconvenient spot. He shot Umbra Samaritan Nourkias in the back, then started heading down the back line, destroying Slave Drone on the way!

The rampage comes to a sudden halt when a combi rifle remote gets a lucky hit, while the Gwailo manages to only take a single wound from having been shot in the back.

The Malignos Hacker murders a Guilang dead, then grabs a box and runs away.

Meanwhile the Guilang in the centre grabs a box and bundles back into the building. I send Agent Dukash to run and try and take it back but I don't quite have the orders left and he can't quite make it.

The new Yu Jing spec op then runs up, stabs up my Malignos and grabs the box back, securing a Yu Jing win.

I had a ton of fun with this. I've got a lot of thoughts about Code One that I'll try and sort into coherent order at some point in the future.

End of April Hobby Progress

April has been the month where things started taking shape for hobby. It's been kind of helped by the lockdown and various other commitments being cancelled, but that's not just it. At the start of the month, I'd been painting single figures at a time, like these Shasvastii.

Which is fine. It gets them done, and it's for a skirmish game where I don't need a lot of models. But I do have a lot of models that I own, and I hadn't really found the method for upping the pace.

Getting the Wargames Atlantic Halflings done has pointed the way on how I should be getting larger projects done. I was able to get the assembly and core colours done as a batch of five, but then needed to focus down onto finishing single models for the details.

Completing the scatter terrain for the club confirmed that larger batches are a bad idea as they got half completed and then killed my momentum dead. Still, they're done and have helped contribute to moving from having 7 completed models this year to 33. We're heading in the right direction!

While I was stalled on the scatter terrain, I ended up getting to the point where I realised I was building up a huge pile of assembled but unpainted minis. To make sure I was only assembling stuff that was likely to get painted relatively soon, I dug out my Bandua pre-painted terrain that needed assembly. I found it remarkably restful, so I'm likely to continue doing similar in the future!

With 33 models painted, I now have 222 purchased models between my supporting small companies / not Salute run, the Wyrd Miniatures Easter Sale and a Kickstarter turning up. Oops. I've put the brakes on the purchases now while I work on getting this backlog cleared out.

Right now I'm finishing up painting my second Skaven, the old metal Queek Headtaker model from the Made to Order a while ago. I'm painting the assortment of Bad Squiddo models I showed off as assembled a couple of weeks ago to break that up.

Assembly wise, the Battle Systems terrain I picked up is getting done pretty quickly, and I'm finishing up the last Malifaux Prospector who's been procrastinated over to an epic extent.

I am definitely going to start assembling the plastic Skaven I have this coming month. Painting wise, I really want to finish up the Shasvastii from Wildfire. I may hold the Gwailo back from the blog and paint it for the Mayacast painting challenge.

Meanwhile, on the gaming front, I've managed to try out Code One using Tabletop Simulator, and I've signed up to a club Infinity League using TTS, and my first game is coming up. All in all, I'm feeling pretty positive about my hobby, despite The Situation.

Not-Salute Saturday: XLC and Black Scorpion Miniatures

The last of my "Not Salute" orders arrived over this week, so lets take a look at what I picked up. First up was a moderate sized order from Black Scorpion Miniatures. They're best known for doing high quality pirate miniatures, both historical and fantasy. They were offering this adorable plague doctor as their "show" miniature, which I just couldn't pass up.

To pad out the order to get up to the amount I needed to spend to get the plague doctor, I picked up these undead cowboys. I've realised that I'm currently holding off on painting my Malifaux crew because I'm unsure of a planned paint scheme and am nervous of messing it up. I'll use these four as test paints to get a good idea of what I'm planning to do.

But here's the models that drew me to Black Scorpion in the first place. Their two offerings of "Mercenaries" are lovely, characterful thugs and ne'erdowells that I'm really looking forward to getting paint on.

I'm pleased to say now I've got them in hand that their resin casts are nice and crisp, and should clean up a treat.

I've spent a couple of years looking super thoughtfully at XLC Wargaming Terrain, and decided to get a small building to try out. My one worry is that they're not intended for Infinity, so often have roofs that can't be reached until a model deploys there and other things I find annoying in Infinity tables. I'm just going to be picky with which ones I select to buy from a game play perspective, and it will be fine. There's still plenty of viable options.

Trying Tabletop Simulator to play Infinity

I gave Tabletop Simulator a go the other day. It is what it says on the tin - a programme designed to emulate tabletop and board games. It has a pretty good Infinity mod, which is what I was trying out.

Tabletop Simulator itself is a teensy bit clunky, but serviceable. I have enough players locally that normally I wouldn't bother with it, but with in person gaming out of the question, I thought I'd give it a go.

One of the HATE club, Yashar, offered to give me a demo game and talk me through using it. His advice was that it was broadly OK to use but you needed to be more collaborative with your opponent on things like checking sight lines and so on.

And, more or less, I agree.

We had a Limited Insertion game of Frontline that wasn't much to write home about, as Yashar is a more consistent player than me usually, and my dice were utter garbage on top of that. But it was about the learning experience, and it definitely taught me that getting games in was entirely feasible.

I might manage to get a battle report or two done, depending on how we do. We've got a little league going to get some games in while we're all cooped up indoors, but it's already a pretty slow process. Adding making notes and taking screen shots might be a step too far.

That said, I'll see what I can do.

Work in Progress Wednesday: Otherworld Miniatures

Here's something else I've got queued up for painting in the future. This is an assortment of miniatures from Otherworld Miniatures.

I really like a lot of the old style that Otherworld infuses into their miniatures. The guard looks like he's spent hours on duty and is Just Done. The scrawny henchman carrying all the gear doesn't look like he can heroically take out twenty goblins. He's just here to carry the heavy bags.

Meanwhile, the Satyr and Dryad cover different aspects of strange creatures of the wild. I like the classical style on the Dryad's dress in particular to mean that it ties in with the classical look of the satyr.

This dwarf mercenary was in the sale because they don't sell enough of them. I have no idea why, as he's just a lovely simple sculpt full of character. Some people have no taste!

I'm looking forward to these getting to the front of my painting queue. In the meantime, why not check out Otherworld Miniatures and pick up a few models?

Complete: Bandua Wargames Industry of Murder Containers

In between getting some painting done this weekend, I settled down to assemble these "Industry of Murder" containers from Bandua Wargames. They are MDF kits with designs printed on them, and while they recommend gluing, fit together so neatly that I didn't need to use any.

I used a little dark brown contrast paint to shade down the points where the MDF had connected to the sheet they were printed on, and they look great. I originally bought these at CanCon last year, and they were overdue, so I'm particularly pleased to get them done.

I'm not quite finished on my painting from the weekend, sadly. The old metal Queek Headtaker turns out to be a super fiddly model with lots of detail and is taking longer than expected. In between painting him I'm painting the Amazon Princesses from Bad Squiddo Games. They're much easier to paint but I'm experimenting a bit with contrast and taking a bit of extra time with them.

Not Salute Saturday: Arcworlde, War World and Battle Systems

Last Saturday should have been Salute, the biggest war-gaming trade show in the UK. It's a massive money maker for the small wargaming companies that attend, and its cancellation will have hit them hard. I decided to take a browse through their trader list and buy some bits and bobs to offer my support.

If your funds allow, consider doing the same!

Over the past week, some of my purchases have now arrived. Ironically, the first of these isn't really a not-Salute purchase, but rather the Arcworlde Second Edition Kickstarter, which turned up on the morning of what would have been Salute. I'd have counted it in my Salute-loot if the event had been on, so it's getting included!

Arcworlde is produced by Warploque Miniatures, who also produce a few fantasy American football teams as well. Arcworlde is a small skirmish game that's designed for friendly, rather than competitive play. It definitely has a whimsical feel.

I invested in two starter sets, in resin. I got the "Undead Raiders" for my wife, though I'll be painting them up for her as her job is being super hard work at the moment. I picked the new "Beastfolk" range, mostly because they have a hedgehog witch and a hare playing the bagpipes.

The resin cast quality is super clear and nice, and I can't see much in the way of mould lines. There's a couple of awkwardly placed gates I'm a little worried about, but nothing that should be a problem. There's a couple of small air bubbles in places as well. They should fix up pretty easily.

Arcworlde has a particularly good line of small critters. Whether they're miniature trolls, grifflings or Mjowls (cat owl hybrids), they're sensibly allowed to be taken by any faction and totally adorable.

I have a significant "adorable small creature" Arcworlde problem. They also do excellent big monsters but I've not picked any up yet.

Battle Systems make pre-coloured cardboard terrain. I'm looking at low effort options for populating Infinity tables so ordered a couple of small kits to get an idea of them.

Now they've arrived, I'm giving the "28mm - 35mm" label some serious side eye. They look more like 25mm size, though I'm going to assemble them to check.

I picked up a couple of things from War World Miniatures, as I'd not heard of them before finding them in the Salute trader list. They do a lot of scenery, but I decided to have a look at some of their miniatures.

I picked up this sleeping baby dragon, as he's a small and easy paint job, and I really liked the look of him.

Meanwhile, these are their "Sci Fi Renegades" set. They've got a very early sci fi look that I kind of like. I'm looking forward to them working their way through the queue and getting to the point where I can paint them.

That's all of the stuff I've ordered that's arrived so far. I've also picked up some stuff from Black Scorpion and XLC, so hopefully they'll be here in time for next week's post.