Vampifan's Views 85 - Monthly Musings 59

As the dark, cold nights draw in, it is time for another one of my monthly musings. The painting to the left is another fine piece of art from Joe Jusko, showing Vampirella standing in a waterfall of blood... or should that be a bloodfall? Is there such a word?

October was a very busy month for me but November has been a very quiet month. However, I have managed to get a lot of painting done, which has pleased me immensely. I mentioned last time that both Mongoose Publishing and Warlord Games had lost their licences to sell the Judge Dredd range of figures. This was really bad timing as I am getting ready to start what I hope will be a long running Judge Dredd campaign using the rules from the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game and its supplement, Blood on the Streets. I made mention of the fact that I was missing just a few figures from the JDMG range. Well, thanks to a few very reasonable sellers on eBay and especially to one of my followers, Paul Smith, my collection is completed to my satisfaction. I am still missing a few sets but they are ones that are of no great interest to me (the Judda and Oz Judge on Trike). I'd like to offer a massive and heartfelt thanks to Paul for going above and beyond the call of duty for selling me the figure sets I most wanted (Assassinator Droid, Electro Cordon and Zombie Conversion pack) as well as throwing in some unexpected extras (a weapons pack, two Zombie Judges and six pre-made Mantic Zombies using the Zombie Conversion pack). He also totally surprised me by offering to sell me his Justice Department Pat Wagon, a model that I never expected to own, due to it being only available to a few people who made a pledge for it on the Judge Dredd Kickstarter project. I chose not to back this particular Kickstarter. Seeing as how badly it has been run, I suspect I made the right decision.

A Justice Department Pat Wagon in 28mm scale.

When the parcel arrived I was both surprised and impressed at how big the Pat Wagon was. I quickly made it and it is currently on my painting desk getting painted right now. However, whilst I am using a similar colour scheme of the photo above, I will not be adding all of the lettering on that model.

Speaking of parcels, a couple of weeks ago I received the Wave 1 parcel for backing Mantic Games'  The Walking Dead miniature skirmish game on Kickstarter. To the left of here is the box it came in, all very cleverly packaged so that all of the figures and components fitted into the box perfectly. I have played a fair few of the introductory scenarios from the Quick Start rules booklets. My verdict is that this is a very good little skirmish game. You can play solo, co-operatively with other players or competitively against other players. I took to it straight away and I certainly enjoyed playing it far more than Project Z by Warlord Games. One thing I must mention about the game is the figures. They are all one-piece castings made of hard plastic and are incredibly detailed and just gorgeous to look at. Yes, you do get a lot of zombies with this set, as you'd expect, but what really surprised me was that every one was a unique figure. No duplicates here, like in Zombicide. Massive respect to Mantic Games for making this decision. It is fair to say that being a big fan of The Walking Dead, I backed this project heavily. One of the add-ons I was very happy to get was this scenery booster set.

Ignore the fact that it says "Shipping Wave 02". It shipped with Wave 01, albeit without the two Neoprene Mats (they are coming with Wave 02). These plastic 3D scenery items replace the card counters that represented them and will be usable in many other games. Those vehicles are not solid castings but have hollowed out shells to keep the weight and cost down. Unless you turn them over you'd never know.

A game in progress with unpainted figures and scenery.

I should point out that this game is based on the comic series of The Walking Dead and not the TV series. So, the likes of Daryl will not be appearing as an official figure but there's nothing from stopping you adding him if you so wanted to, as there are rules for creating your own survivors. You could well ask, do I need another zombie apocalypse game? Well, only you can answer that one. For me, however, this is a very welcome addition to both my collection of games and figures. Highly recommended!

Finally, if any of you scored a bargain on Black Friday then well done to you. If not, well done for not succumbing to the hype. Personally, I hate it and I spent precisely nothing on the day.