No Mans Land. Maidstone.

I went over to Maidstone today as I knew that Karl from Crooked Dice (7TV and 7OMBIE TV) would be running a game. He actually had two games set up. "You Only Live Dice" which we were lucky enough to play at the club two weeks ago and this one. "Fiddlers Green" is a small introductory game that takes 30mins to a hour to play. As such it's a very good stepping stone into understanding the rules. The whole game is on a 2 foot square tile. Set in a fictional English village, I assume called "Fiddlers Green" as that is the name of the scenario. A couple of good guys are sent into town to investigate the strange happenings aided and sometimes hindered by one of the locals (a little old lady with a shotgun) All the pics, apart from the first one are in play photos. The Villainous opponents are some Morris Dancers with pistols and unfriendly attitudes and some robotic scarecrows with scary attitudes.

I did not play, I probably could have Squeezed a game in but elected to take some snaps and bother Karl about a few game ideas.(More of that in a second or two). Because I did not play I am not 100% sure of the victory conditions. So all I will say about that for now is that the game did look well balanced seemed to flow nicely. One player did struggle to get the initiative dice roll and was always just slightly out of step. But as we all know you just can't beat the dice when you continue to roll low.

As mentioned above the real reason for going was to talk to Karl about the proposed show game. I showed him the picture of the "Tigers nest Monastery" and he firmly bit into the idea. As a visual it's very strong and If I can make it to look anywhere near as good, the game will be a winner in the public eyes no mater what. (we all get seduced by nice terrain). I was concerned about using any of the Characters that already exist in the rules. I need not have been Karl is happy for me to use them, or not as I see fit. He will get a chance to play test it before I take it to any shows, so anything he really dislikes can be changed.

One of the problems with the two show games Crooked Dice have is that they take too long. I think I can remedy this by breaking my game down to 4 sub games that can, if you choose and time permits play in sequence. Or I hope you can play it as 1 large game. The 4 smaller games strike me as the best option though as at shows most people in the UK don't want to commit themselves to a long game, but could spare 30mins to an hour. The freshness of 4 smaller games might work well. I have not seen it at a show, where all the games are linked, but I hope it will give a very episodic feel.

I plan to start buying some materials on Monday and maybe to start the build. Plans are great as they always change so when Monday comes I can always change my mind. I intend to build one 2 foot square section at a time. This will allow me to try it down the club at each stage. Maybe this is a prudent, maybe it's me being a wimp! One of the first things to do though is to decide on the style of the casts. Artisan do some "Sky Pirates" which will look good as the heroes troops. I have two packs unpainted so that is a start. For the Villains though I am torn as there are so many options. I want them to look as dramatic as possible, as well as villainous evil underlings. My current thinking is to change them on different boards. The first board for example maybe some Copplestones "Back of Beyond" Figures will look correct with one Ninja. Progressing through the boards with the foes getting more and more daunting. Maybe the 4t board has an end of level boss...

AT this stage it's all just talk. Now the hard work begins.

Thanks for looking have a good weekend. Take care and roll good dice. All the best Clint.

 Post script: A pic of Rochester Castle from the train as I came home from Maidstone.

Update 0.1

A little while ago I ran a poll asking what project I should tackle next. The most popular result was 7Tv or7ombie Tv. So what have I done with that idea since I hear you ask. Well last club day I had Karl from Crooked Dice visit the club and put on a 7TV game for us. I hope the club members enjoyed it, I know I did. Karl has promised to come back later and run another game for us. Which would be great and very much appreciated. This was an important first step, as it confirmed that we mostly had got the rules, mechanics and flavour right in what the company was looking for. There were a few minor tweaks (aren't there always) grenades actions and luck that we will have to look at. But generally everything went to plan.

Following this step I started to look at possible settings for the game. I did not want to encroach on Crooked Dice show games, which tend to be based around James Bond settings. The painting to the right is of the "Tigers Nest Monastery". As a current Buddhist Monastery this will not be used in any James Bond film. That being the case I feel sure that to take inspiration from this site would be acceptable, and yet still retain the feel of the genre. Quite obviously a direct copy of the setting would be unfeasible. I can use the Tigers Nest Setting as a start point for planning a game though.

 Which is what I have started to do. As you can see I have started putting together some notes, sketches and game ideas down on paper. Don't get too excited this really might fall flat on its face. I do however feel confident enough in the idea to start to share the process now. My current thinking is that I should move away from James Bond and treat the setting as semi mystical. This is one of the reasons for painting the Yeti and the Ninja! Yes there is a method to my madness... but on the whole much more madness than method. For figures I have ruled nothing out. I do anticipate buying some more Ninja.... and painting them in RED  robes possibly some Chinese terracotta warrior figures to use as robotic guards or maybe some Chinese Zombies. Or I might purchase some modern 28mm Afghan fighters to act as site security. At this stage it really is totally wide open. I intend to talk to Karl on Saturday and ask if he wants me to use his existing heroic cast, "Pandora King" And "DR Soloman" or if he wants to retain them for his own game. The last thing I want to do is tread on the companies toes on this matter.
I must stress the "Tigers Nest Monastery" is for inspiration only do not expect to see me build the whole thing!

I will post again on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for looking. Any ideas you want to contribute will be more than welcome but as ever I will get the final say. Take care and have a good couple of days. All the best Clint.

Yeti

This is a http://newlinedesigns.co.uk/ Bigfoot miniature. Having looked at images of Bigfoot and Yeti's It came clear that Bigfoot were usually shown as being brown and Yetis are shown as being white. It seems that these mythical creatures are so similar as to being just about the same thing. That being the case maybe the colouring is geographic in nature. This is of course speculation. As I have chosen a white colour scheme we can think of this one as a yeti and not Bigfoot. A really nice one piece sculpt. (The Ninja is shown only for scale.) Painting was simple. White undercoat with black ink washes to get the main fur colour then my normal techniques on the flesh. I won't say the figure painted itself, but it was a nice straightforward figure to paint. To be honest it was the base that gave me the biggest problem. I decided that I wanted patches of snow on the base which were the problem.You can just see them on the base. They look better in real life, but you'll just have to take my word on that.

The figure was purchased at Broadside in June. Which means it made its way to the top of the painting list in double quick time. I do have a second pose, but that one is not fighting quite so hard to get coloured up. But maybe soon. Someone (sorry I forgot who) mentioned "Drug crazed Chinese Zombies". That simple comment (I think on the Zombie Bloggers Association before you search all the blog comments) sparked an idea in my head which has since spiralled out of control. Luckily it has not resulted in a spending spree (yet). It has resulted in a frantic Internet search for both information and miniatures.

Well that's today post. I shall post again on Thursday. Thanks for looking. See you again in a couple of days! All the best Clint.

Fembots (2)

Back to the wargames stuff. I am still not quite managing to get much painting done. However I have finished two Crooked Dice 7TV Fembots. Long time readers of the blog will remember I painted a couple after the Cavalier show one of which I gave to Kev. Anyway, long story made short, here are the next two. I purchased 4 at BROADSIDE, so two more to do sometime. ! of each pose and two heads although I am tempted to grad a few extra heads to create more variety, shame the robot face one is only available with one hair style. (I am too lazy to sculpt new hair, even If I could do it!) It is clear the fembot on the right has had their artificial face mask come loose whether this is for maintenance or from battle damage is unclear, still I suspect most of my followers would not be looking at the face first. I also think a variety of skin tones on the Fembots is desirable as well so I have painted the figure on the left to be more from the Indian sub continent region.

The game Karl put on last weekend has sent my brain into all sorts of confusion. As a club we have the offer to run the Crooked Dice show games at shows. This really is a Fantastic offer. As a club I think it would be a real boost to us as well. As such I have contacted a couple of local shows and await their reply to determine if they have space for another game. Time will tell. I am not the kind of guy that will be happy running other peoples games for very long so I suspect I shall sort out my own game of 7TV suitable for shows. I am pretty much bursting with ideas, and I suspect that Karl will be happy with anything I can get made I still want to get it "right". I will want a game that looks and plays well.

For today that's enough waffle. I need to get started on some of the projects so I have set aside this afternoon to do just that. Time will tel if I manage it! That's it for the blog today. Hope you like the Fembots, I'll post again on Tuesday. All the best Clint.