He looks How I feel!

 It's true this morning I do feel just like he feels. Don't get me wrong I am happy inside, but very slightly hung over. Still enough about me. This is
an EM4 figure I impulse bought on eBay. It pretty much painted itself, it came ready undercoated and the colours were the obvious choices. Grubby white vest, dark blue jeans and dark brown/stained boots. He carries a knuckle duster in his right hand and a wrench in his back pocket. That is probably not the right choice for fighting zombies but for brawling against other humans might be enough, unless they have guns of course. This figure was a joy to paint, it has a very cartoon look to it when seen in the metal which I like. I shall look out for a few more like him as I do have an idea for a game or two using him. But more of that another time perhaps.

I did meet up with a couple of my old role-play buddies last night. One of the questions I asked them was Zombie games, Set in England or America? I can see advantages to both. The main problem being that an English setting is ripe for comedy. "Shaun of the dead" and "Cockneys Vs Zombies" out weigh "28 Days Later" or "Day of the Triffids" (triffids are so close to zombies you can easily use the same rules.). I will have a quick chat at the club tomorrow and see what the guys would rather. They might surprise me. This talk of Zombies is because I purchased "All Things Zombie-Final Fade Out!" (ATZ-FFO) yesterday. I am still reading them and picking apart the differences in the rules from their earlier edition. However as a number of club members like Zombie games I am seriously thinking of starting a "campaign" as I know it is a setting that they will warm too. If I manage to pull it together I anticipate playing it once every 2 months or so. Which will allow us to play other games and yet also not allow it to get too stale. That is it for today thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and I shall post again on Monday. All the Best Clint.

AWESOME!

No Huge surprise, another mech finished. This is an "Awesome" Assault mech. Stocked with 3 PPC (Particle projectile cannons) as well as a small laser which I tend not to worry about too much. The PPCs deal 10 damage each and have a a very good range. They do kick out some heat, but with 28 heat sinks the Awesome is not prone to running hot. But with only 3/5 movement it is one of the slowest mechs you can get. (The 3 is the walking speed and 5 the running speed). This lack of speed can be a major set back in some terrain. Overall though if you can get the Awesome to the battlefield, it will dish out a lot of damage. Having big guns is not in my opinion quite enough to make this a favourite of mine, I actually like the challenge of limited manoeuvrability, and with a quick torso twist you can usually bring the PPCs to bear. For me however, the big advantage the Awesome has is the HUGE amount of armour it carries. If you look at the record sheet (below) and look at the armour diagram (top right of the record sheet) You will see loads and loads of armour circles in each location. The armour weak spot is of course the head, as no mech can have more than 9 points of armour in that location. Which does mean that a lucky shot can fell any mech. That being the case is it a weak spot? If yes it is a weak spot for every mech in the game and for game purposes it is a good thing that no mech is invulnerable.

 

As with the Hunchback I have put the plastic and metal mechs side by side to demonstrate scale, size and compatibility. I can see no reason not to use them on the same battlefield.  There clearly are some differences, most clearly in the arm plates, shoulders and lower legs. These differences and not significantly different enough to stop me using them both. The thought of using 2 80 tom assault mech Awesome does make me pause for a moment and wonder if they will get used together on the same side. Time will tell, though I would expect not, so I do expect them to be used on different lances at best or different sides so I think the differences will not be clear from 2 foot away which is the view most players will get.

 

The record sheet is from the new box set, but seems identical to the other record sheets I have from 25 years ago.  New players should not be discouraged by seeing a mech record sheet, they do look complicated at first glance, but when you play the game everything makes sense and is clear.

Lastly as of last night I may not be going to SELWG. Which is a shame, but the guy who was going to give me a lift has had to withdraw so unless I want to spend 4 hours on trains on a Sunday, and spend £12 doing so I think it's a no go for me. A little sad, but maybe for the best and I'll save some money. That's it for today. I shall post again on Saturday. Until then take care and have fun. All the best Clint.

Berserkers (2)

About 4 weeks ago I picked up the "Gripping Beast" Viking Berserkers. Wanting a brak from mechs (there's plenty more of them to come), I decided to paint these, afterall it's better than watching TV in the evenings when I get home from work. (As I am sure we all agree.... absolute rubbish on most nights). Anyway 4 figures in a pack, I found the sculpting OK but not great, and the poses so similar on each one as to seem almost the same. Casting was acceptable, some flash and mould lines, but nothing major. Overall they are not something I took delight on, but at least they are done, and I won't be doing them again. When If comes to SAGA the game I will probably swap out the two handed axe man and add the Ulfhednar from Citadel I have already painted. I Painted their shields in black and white patterns. I remember when I was doing dark age re-enactment (about 15 years ago now) some woman, who was into textiles claiming that people in the dark ages probably did bot have a word for black as they could not dye it. I have never looked into it but for me common sense says that they did. After all just because they could not make a black dye did not mean that they could not make black ink or paint, or even just accept that the colour of coal could have a name. If we use her agrument today, it would mean we have no word for chrome, just because we can't dyd it. (SOrry went of on a Rant!

AS you can see these all have wolfskin "Cloaks" and the spear used overhand are quite long. I did not trim the spears and perhaps in retrospect I should have. While I am not overly impressed with the figures (or the painting if I am honest) they do round out my SAGA Vikings, so as far as I am concerned that's enough for me.

Thanks for reading, I shall try to post again on Thursday. All the best and speak soon. Clint