Monday 27 June 2016

Vampifan's Views 81 - Monthly Musings 55

The month of June has been very good to me. More on why later, but first I start as always with another painting of my favourite superhero - Vampirella. Here she is again, painted by my favourite Vampi artist, Joe Jusko. Nice use of colour in this painting. I wonder what music Vampi is dancing to? Bat Out Of Hell, perhaps? :-)

The best news of the month was that I received delivery of my Zombicide: Black Plague expansion sets. I knew I had ordered a whole load of stuff for the Kickstarter pledge but I was very surprised to see my mail-man coming down my garden path carrying two big brown cardboard boxes. Both were filled with amazing goodies. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon opening every box within the two parcels. Usually, when I get a big delivery like this I post a "what-I-got" article on my blog but this time, I'm not going to. There are a lot of unboxing videos on YouTube showing what backers received for their Black Plague pledges. I watched a lot of them, whilst waiting for my stuff to arrive and they show what's available far better than a few photos of mine could.

What I will say is that I ordered the Wulfsburg expansion set, extra tiles, some very useful plastic card holders and every single figure that was available for the game. That means I now have nearly 100 Heroes to fight the Zombie hordes. The Zombies have also grown stronger with extra Zombies, including Deadeye Walkers (aka Zombie Archers), Notoriously Plagued Characters (Zombie NPCs), Zombie Crowz, Zombie Wolves and some truly awesome Zombie Abominations like the Ablobination, the Abominalpha, the Abominotaur, the Abominarat and the Abominatroll. What is amazing about all of the new figures in these sets is that the sculptors have really raised their game. The standard of sculpting is absolutely top notch! Painting figures of this high quality will be a labour of love.

I have just about finished painting the last of my Zombies from the basic Zombicide: Black Plague boxed set. I was hoping to get them finished before my expansion sets arrived but no matter. They'll be finished within the week. As soon as they are done I'll photograph them all and then I'll be posting lots of reviews of the figures from that set on my blog. Batreps will follow later. However, I'm resisting the temptation to dive straight into my new stuff and start painting some choice figures from this massive collection of minis.

What I plan on concentrating on next are my Shadows of Brimstone figures. They'll be taking centre stage on my painting desk. I am determined to make a push to get them all painted. Other stuff will get painted as well, as I like to have a few things going on at once. Currently, in addition to my Zombicide: Black Plague Zombies I am also painting a few figures for the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - Fatties and robots. I have been making some buildings and scenery from 4Ground for Shadows of Brimstone and Six Gun Sound. To the left is a photo of a New England Settler's Cabin taken from the 4Ground webstore. This was the very first 28mm scale Wild West building that I bought and made. In my opinion, 4Ground make the best buildings for any genre. They are pricey but you are paying for top quality. I'll be slowly building up my collection of Wild West buildings in the months to come, buying one or two per month, mainly from 4Ground but not exclusively so.

This has also been a very good month for me playing games. I have played games of Airfix Battles, Rum and Bones and Thunderbirds, once each, four games of Heroclix and six games of Shadows of Brimstone, repeatedly playing the High Noon Duel scenario from the Frontier Town expansion set using a different hero each time against the Outlaw gunman. It is always nice to find the time to play some games but this month has been exceptional for me. Okay, so many of the games I played were short ones, lasting less than an hour each, but I'm still overjoyed to have played so many games in just four weeks.

22 comments:

  1. I'm delighted to say that I too now have my "Black Plague" goodies, Bryan. I was also hoping to own "Shadows Of Brimstone" too. But having travelled up to the Midlands to look at a copy, the store had sold out :-( Still I'm sure your reviews will help me decide whether or not to pick up a copy ;-)

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    1. Great to hear that you received your "Black Plague" goodies, Simon. I hope you're as impressed with what you got as I am with my "little lot!"

      "Shadows of Brimstone" and its supplements are not easy to get hold of but not impossible either. You'll be seeing a lot of reviews and batreps for this game on both of my blogs in the coming months.

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    2. Massive congrats on receiving your Black Plague, you must be delighted. I went for the Knights Pledge level and (although didn't go for all the extras) just on the two boxed games and all those lovely stretch goals, I was simply over the MOON with the sheer amount of goodness I received in my huge box.

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    3. I also got the Knights' Pledge, Steve, and my goodness, there are a lot of extras that come with it. I'm glad to hear you're happy with your haul.

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  2. My head is spinning with the amount of projects you have on the go Bryan! I struggle keeping up with one or two, which is why my lead pile is enormous I guess. ;-)

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    1. Andy, it is only in the last three to four years that my gaming has diversified so much. For over ten years I concentrated solely on zombie apocalypse gaming. Now, I like variety just as much and it means I never grow tired of anything I play. Let us not talk about the size of lead (and plastic) piles as mine is embarrassingly high!

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  3. Wow I think you've played more games in the last month than I've played in the last two years!

    Really must play more games... mind I've probably been saying that for the last two years as well!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. One of My New Year's resolutions was to play more games this year, Roger. So far, I'm on track.

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  4. How on earth did I miss this post!!!!

    Good to see you getting some games in, I only wish I played as many!!! Good on you!

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    1. Thanks, Clint. It was a great feeling to have played so many games this month, even though most were over very quickly.

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  5. You`d actually hate my games workload. Running two of the three local clubs, plus our private (house) group, plus our family games means I HAVE to play probably around 20 games a week (not counting role playing games), so I`m guessing I play about 1000 games a year. Sounds envious right? trust me it can soon feel like a nightmare lol. There are times I just dream of watching tv, bolting the door, drinking copious amounts of tea, and not touching games for a month.

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    1. You're right, Steve. That sounds great but I know the reality of the situation would be very different, especially if you're the only games master. When I was running my gaming group we'd meet once per week and I ran just about every game we ever played. How I'd have loved to have a break and just be a normal player. I just couldn't manage 20 games a week. How on earth do you get anything else done? I fully sympathise with your plight and yes, I would hate your games workload! Sheesh!

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    2. Usually at the clubs say, there are five big tables with games being run on each, in addition probably two or three smaller (board) games along the side of the hall... often these are linked historical campaign games (like Bolt Action of Black Powder), Far end is the BIG table for rpg. I skip from table to table...usually umpiring the other Dungeon/Game Masters, checking in on the boardgamers and running my own game same time (usually me as pretty much only me, Tar` or my mate Dave actually know all the rules of all the games we play... which means between us I guess we usually run with about three dozen sets of rules in our heads any given time., my game is usually on the big table at the end. My personal game runs with three DMs, so I can usually hand the game over to one of the others while I check on the rest of the tables. Yeah its nightmare hahaha.

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  6. I have assembled quite a few 4Ground buildings (for our collection and for others)and I find them second to none in excellence.

    Hil

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  7. You've been really amazing in the amount of painting and gaming you have done. Not to mention the diversity. I've been trying to get Frostgrave going for a year now. One easy game! I hope someday I can play 1/3 of what you do. This page is very inspiring Bryan. BTW I loved the Zombicide Dark Ages extras, too. Great stuff!

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    1. Many thanks, Roger, and your comments are very much appreciated. Good luck with Frostgrave. It's not a game I own but I do enjoy reading batreps by other players. As for playing more games it's all a question of making the best use of your spare time, which is easier said than done when real life and other hobby needs (painting for example) can intrude on you.

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  8. So much stuff going on! I couldn't possibly commit to to many projects myself, though...

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    1. Thanks, Hugh. There was a time, not so long ago, when I thought the same. Now, my gaming habits have completely changed and I'm actively embracing diversity.

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