Song of the Deep Empire - Playtest

Over the weekend I had some friends stay over for the solar eclipse. We were lucky enough for our town to be smack dab right in the middle of the line of totality so we got to see the entire eclipse in all its glory. So to celebrate this wonderful celestial event (which some weirdos mistakenly predicted to be an apocalyptic event), we played out another apocalyptic event in the making:

Again, I am absolutely kicking myself for not having taken any pictures of the battle in progress. But I can at least give a little report on it. My friend brought several pre-painted D&D minis from his own collection and we hammered out a themed 300 point warband:

Left to right: Incubus Warrior, Elemestra, and Naga Warrior

Jake the Savage Slaver and his 5 Slaves

This faced off against a Deep Empire Rise:

Top left to bottom right: The Bride, Lord Mo'clor'rath'kritlor, Karkarion Warrior, 2 Spikeshell Warriors, 2 Naiad Warriors, Naiad Piercer

I had just finished painting these guys before he came over. They certainly set the tone for the entirety of the Deep Empire. I will do a quick report of painting bones minis: I certainly love it. It is true that they do not need to be spray primed. I just coated them with a some of Reaper's brush on primer, and they painted like a dream after that. The bottom 3 of course are not Reaper bones, but are from Mantic's Kings of War range. I bought a small kit of them off of ebay because they could fit the deep empire very nicely. As for basing I just used a mix of spackle(filler), sand, and paint. The idea is a marshland theme. For the grass tufts I used a very creative method found here.

Dried grass tufts being made from a really cheap paintbrush I already had.

Anyway about the battle. It was a lot of fun, and got really intense. His Gorgonites got beat out in the end though, and part of the failure was due to the encroaching waters, which is sort of the idea. The waters are intended to make the campaign an uphill battle for the participants. However I did figure something out: placing D6 water tiles onto the table each time a Personality activates is way too quick. The waters came up fast and after a few turns the board was pretty well flooded. I will be reducing that likely to D3 water tiles per Personality activation, or even just each time the Deep Empire player begins a turn, bring in D3 waters. This is why we are experimenting with this. He did have some cool moments though, like his Incubus Warrior leaping from building to building, and the slaves surrounding and taking out the Karkarion Warrior in a mass of naked bodies.

I would like to get some more of my Deep Empire models painted before I get the chance to play again.

Song of the Deep Empire - Encroaching Waters

I have been doing some preliminary writing for a set of scenarios and campaign for Song of Blades and Heroes. The idea is about an ancient evil from the deeps of the oceans rise up to flood the surface, destroy civilization, and recede again. The mortal races of the surface are tenacious, and always rebuild. Prompting this to happen every thousand years or so.

It is a campaign, minimum 2 players, and each player builds a warband that grows as the campaign goes along. But one player takes the role of the Deep Empire, trying to ensure the Rise happens. Other players make groups of adventurers (trying to stop it), treasure hunters (the Deep Empire is ancient, and bring a lot of relics of the past with them), or mercenaries, among other ideas. It's really up to the players how they would involve themselves in this.

I am still working out the campaign paths, scenarios, and story, but I have one idea I really do like that gives the Deep Empire an edge over the other warbands.

Encroaching Waters
All models in a Deep Empire force has the Aquatic special rule and have to pay for it, no exceptions. While this can make Deep Empire models a little more expensive, it works out because every time a Deep Empire Personality activates, water features begin to appear and spread across the game board. These water features generally may be about 3" to 4" square, and of course they will have no effect on Deep Empire models, but for the surface dwellers, it can be quite a drawback to have to move and fight through them.

So let's make some encroaching water tiles for use during a game.

I started with a display pocket. These are thick flexible pieces of clear plastic used to mount signs. So one of these provides 2 sheets when you cut off the edges.

Next I taped one of the sheets to a wooden board to hold the sheet tight. I also put a paper underneath with the basic 3"x4" squares drawn so all my water pieces are sorta around the same size.

Using my trusty hot glue gun, I write out the outlines of some water pieces.

Then I continue to work on filling the pools in with hot glue, doing an inner boarder on one, then moving on to the next while it sets, and so on.

Continue until all pieces are filled in completely.

Once the sheet has cooled, cut them out with a decent pair of scissors.

I think they work well enough to convey shallow waters. They are small enough to fit in or around most pieces of terrain. Usually water features are more elaborate, but these are designed to be put down during gameplay.

I first tried making them and painting them blue, but I decided they looked too fake and stood out too much. I realized the clear option was better so you could see the colors underneath and they would blend in with the map better. Besides, shallow waters are not blue.

As you could also see I have a selection of aquatic themed BONES minis for this project. That was intentional. I will do infrequent updates as this project comes along. Maybe even a battle report!

Treating Reaper BONES minis

If you have been following me for a while, you would know I actually really like Reaper's BONES line of minis. They are cheap, there's a huge variety, and have a decent amount of detail, but there are problems with them, namely the soft plastic they are made of. But I don't fret over that as with a little creative hobbying, you can get around the flaws. So here are some tips I have found for preparing BONES minis for tabletop.

TIP 1) Replace Bendy Bits

 A common complain are the bendy and warped weapons. Some guides will tell you to stick them in hot water, bend it back, and let it cool. But for me, don't be afraid to replace them with whatever bits you got. Superglue works best for this as plastic glues don't work on BONES materials.

In this case I simply chopped off the spear bits, drilled holes in the hands, and fed in this bit from the Drukhari Venom kit. Common fantasy orcs are different than the 40k Orks are some of us used to. A spear with skulls on it seemed to fit.

 
TIP 2) Base them on Washers
BONES minis are made of a very light weight material, and have little bases built into them already, but they are rarely big enough and for especially tall minis they are prone to tipping. So put them on something cheap and weighty. Put them on washers.

I got these at a local Home Depot. When looking for good washers, you want ones with the right size on the outside and as small a hole inside as possible. The washers also don't need to be especially thick. I got these ones because I can use them for 25mm, 32mm, and 40mm bases respectively.

For gluing them on, I would recommend E6000 or GOOP. You can get either at any hobby story and they are essentially the same things. They are very strong but have a long set time and cant do detail gluing very well. But it is great for gluing BONES to washers. Hot glue isn't strong enough and doesnt glue to metal very well, and superglue is too brittle. E6000 does great with metal.

This gives us a decent amount of weight on the bases and holds them upright fairly well for cheap. Again, E6000 works great on metal, so even one of my old Reaper metal minis has a nice stable base now. But what about the leaning model syndrome?

TIP 3) Prop them up with Paperclips
Some models have weak ankles. Literally. They lean forward too far or back too far. Again others will tell you just to put them in hot water then correct them, but I found the strongest solution is to use the same stuff I pin models with. Paperclips.

When painted up in a flat black, the pins should be fairly invisible.

TIP 4) Transport them on Magnets
With metal washer bases and light plastic minis, they have a very good advantage with magnets and transportation. I found a cheap plastic container with lid at my Walmart. I wanted something about 3" deep, so it could hold my bigger bones minis.

Next I got this magnetic tape. I hear you can buy sheets of this stuff instead of the tape, which may have been better. Crafters usually use this to make refrigerator magnets.

Line the bottom of the container with the magnetic tape. I found the sticky material on the back of the stuff to be incredibly weak, so I just glued the strips down with the ultra strong E6000.

And now you have a decently stable carrying case for your minis without having to bother with foam trays or liners. Granted the magnets are not strong enough to hold the minis when they are really shooken around or bumped upside down, but for normal jostling and transportation, it's definitely good enough.