Thursday, April 28, 2016

Deadzone - Enforcers and Forgefathers

I bought an Enforcercers starter kit off of Ebay for a really good price. It is nice to have 2 basic armies for introducing new players. Coupled with the scratch built terrain, I can get to demo-ing.
Nothing really fancy was done about these guys, just some minor kitbashes so I could make a medic out of one of the Assault Enforcers, and the Peacekeeper Captain has a Grey Knights helmet in place of the original. I just liked the look of it.
Something to notice was I decided to try creating my own street-rubble bases, instead of just sand and rocks I am so used to doing. These are made entirely with plasticard and sand.
I also put them (using the same theme) on my Forgefathers as well, in an effort to make it look like they are all fighting on the same battlefield. I really like the way the basing turned out and will continue to use it as I expand my collection of Deadzone miniatures. Speaking of expanding, you will notice the new big guy on the far right there. That is my Thor Pattern Iron Ancestor, a pretty ambitious conversion project, and I will be doing a How-I-Did-It post on it soon.

Monday, April 25, 2016

The Coven of Verminlord Skrax - Painted Models Part 1

I have been slowly working on painting my Dark Eldar army, and I got some dudes to show off now.

The Haemonculus w/ Webway Portal, Warplord Tich

10 of the Wracks are complete, with glowing yellow whip coils and all. I am in the process of painting the other 10.

In the tournament, having a full set of 6 objective markers helps with bonus points. So keeping with the Skaven theme I built them out of leftover sprue and made some Warpstone objectives. These of course can be used for 40k, as well as AoS as a bonus. Each marker is numbered 1 through 6 based on the number of crystals protruding from the base. So that front left is (1), and the front right is (3). Verminlord Skrax has found that these crystals can be used in several devices to power their machines as well as control and vitalize his rat minions.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Deadzone - Game Board, Terrain, and Game Aid

My brother is coming over this weekend to try a game of Deadzone together. The game utilizes a 3"x3"x3" cube grid system which allows for ease and quick gameplay, as well as VERY dense terrain. Nothing I had already really fit the bill. Fortunately Mantic makes their Battlezones terrain system designed specifically for this, and it looks excellent. Unfortunately I do not have any, yet. So for this demo game, I figured I would make it all myself.
Typical Deadzone terrain density.
It was all fairly easy since the whole system works on that 3" cube measurements, so I took a sheet of foam core, cut it in 3" squares (or groups of 3" squares for stability) and began constructing. When you google 'battlezones terrain' you find plenty of inspiration for what to build.
All made over the course of a couple afternoons.
Then the game mat itself is 2'x2', with the 3" grid on it, as per a standard game for Deadzone. Unfortunately I didn't have a nice print mat that I wanted to draw the 3" grid on with sharpies, so I am using a cut of 1" gridded paper.
In the galactic spanse, Elmer's Corp is one of the major contributors of prefab buildings for new colonies. This was all made with Elmer's Wood Glue as well. I'm sensing a theme here.
A quick note on foam core (also known as foam board). It's a great construction material, but there are 2 types generally on the market. You may be tempted to get the cheap dollar store stuff, but DON'T. You get what you pay for. It is so cheap and fragile. The foam in the middle is that light pearly foam that makes a big mess when you cut it, and the paper sandwiching it is really just paper. Unlike Elmer's brand, for example, uses a sturdier foam and sandwiched with harder cardstock. It's a little more expensive (not by much) but totally worth it.
Open these in a new window and save them for better resolution.
Also on the subject of Deadzone, I made some blank stat cards for your minis. The fields in them are designed for regular games and campaign play. When printed and cut out, each card measures about 5"x3.5"
This is another useful sheet for command dice. When the game gets released, they will provide printed command dice, but in the meantime I made a quick reference card for when rolling your command dice. This works nice because as you roll the dice, you can set them on the proper field for ease. The Special area is intentionally left blank so you can write in your team leader's unique ability.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Gamer A.D.D. - Deadzone Forgefathers

 I backed the Deadzone: Infestation kickstarter because it was one of those games where the more I read about it, the more I like it. But due to funds at the time, I only backed for the books, a few accessories, and the 2 models I need for my Dark Eldar army.

Well I recently got my digital copies of the rulebooks and after reading through them, I am really stoked about playing. It's a simple small skirmish wargame with an attractive campaign system.

While Mantic sometimes gets a bad rap for ripping Warhammer 40,000, there is enough uniqueness to the setting here to make it very attractive. Namely it has SPACE DWARVES!

So naturally that is going to be my faction of choice if I am to play. I bought a starter kit off of ebay for a good price and built it up, as a distraction to my other projects going on right now.
The kit came with 5 brokkrs. Which are the merchants of the forgefathers. I converted them around to make 3 troop brokkr, an engineer to handle the mining laser (not pictured) and make my own Brokkr chief leader. I definitely feel that dwarves (even space dwarves) should have long flowing beards, so I have mixed in some Warhammer dwarf bits in there. I replaced the brokkr hammers with axes, gave them Longbeard heads, and the leader is holding the tome from the Runelord kit. These guys will be the relic hunters. Archaeologists on the search for relics and ancient history (hence the book). They are lead by Hrindir the Seeker out in front.
The Forge Guard are elite impenetrable heavy troopers. I made sure to put some dwarf banner bits on the models with special weapons to denote their standing in the army. The model on the left has a magma cannon, where I replaced its muzzle with an Irondrake gun barrel.
This is Throngnir the Oathbound, the leader of my force in the deadzones. A Forge Guard Huscarl is an extremely resilient badass model. I wanted something to denote that so I figured a long flowing cape would do it. It's a leftover from a Lord-celestant on Dracoth conversion I have planned later.
Mantic will be shipping out the physical rulebooks and Kickstarter rewards sometime this month, and their webstore will be featuring the full range in May (including more Forgefathers I am salivating over). In the meantime, if you want to see this game in action and learn to play, check out these youtube channels: Familyofgamers777 and especially DreadPathZone.