Thursday 17 August 2017

Massive Darkness - What I Got

I mentioned in my last post about my "Happy Thursday" where I received a load of parcels on that joyous day. I showed my Dracula's America Kickstarter package that I got last time. Now, it is time to show you what I got in the biggest parcel of all - my Massive Darkness Kickstarter package, which contains one of everything.
Massive Darkness is a dungeon crawl boardgame with 30mm scale miniatures created by Cool Mini Or Not that can be played with 1 to 6 players. No dungeon master is required as the enemy forces are controlled by an artificial intelligence in a similar manner to the zombie hordes in Zombicide. In this post I'll just show you all that I received for my Kickstarter pledge. I'll review the game itself in a later post. The picture above shows everything that came in a huge brown box. That is quite a hefty amount!
At the back here is the basic game box (it's big, heavy and packed to the gills) and the Lightbringer supplement, which adds crystal caverns and lava flows to the dungeon, plus loads more monsters. The other six boxes were optional buys containing more monsters and heroes. In the middle row from left to right are the Elementals set (contains 4 large elementals - air, earth, fire and water), the Ratlings set (contains 22 assorted Ratlings) and the Troglodytes set (contains 21 assorted Troglodytes and a large Minotaur). In the front row from left to right are the Reptisaurians set (contains 22 assorted Reptisaurians), the Bloodmoon Assassins vs the Hellephant set (contains 3 heroes and a large Hellephant monster) and the Warrior Priests vs the Spearmaiden Cyclops (contains 3 heroes and a huge Cyclops monster).
Two slightly smaller boxed sets feature the Noble Warriors vs the Cockatrice (contains 3 more heroes and a Cockatrice monster) and the Sorcerers vs Lord Tusk set (contains another 3 heroes and an Ogre Lord monster). To the left are three packs of crossover cards for using Zombicide: Black Plague heroes and zombies in Massive Darkness and for using the Massive Darkness heroes in Zombicide: Black Plague. I really love this so much. Kudos to Cool Mini Or Not for offering these cards! Finally are two boxed sets containing 3D plastic chests and pillars and doors and bridges to replace their card counters.
Here's a peak inside the basic game box. As with Zombicide: Black Plague, the heroes have a plastic dashboard to record their equipment, wounds and experience points on. I really like these a lot. The heroes are made of brown plastic and the monsters on grey plastic. The attention to detail of the sculpts is truly amazing and elevates the figures to miniature works of art. Beneath the big tray of monsters in the box are the tiles, dice, counters and cards.
Finally, here's a look inside the Lightbringer supplement, which contains three new heroes, a load more monsters, the crystal and lava tiles and a book of six new quests that makes use of the new tiles.
My mountain of unpainted figures goes up by another couple of hundred (sigh!) but do you know what? I don't care. I'm very happy with this purchase and the crossover potential with Zombicide: Black Plague was the icing on the cake and for me, made this a must have item. Plus, having read the rulebook, I can see that this is a great game in its own right. I very much look forward to playing it.

24 comments:

  1. That truly is a lot of models to add to your painting cue Bryan, but looks to have some great looking pieces that should be a joy to paint

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    1. Absolutely spot on, Dave. the standard of sculpting on plastic minis is getting better all the time and most of these will be a labour of love to paint.

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  2. I think I must e a little bit jealous! All those new and exciting things. But I know time and space do restrict me.

    Well done though I hope you enjoy it all. (and there is a LOT to enjoy clearly!)

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    1. Thanks, Clint. I know I am luckier than most gamers with time, money and storage space aplenty. So why not spend it on something I enjoy so much? This is my number one hobby, after all.

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    2. I am happy for you. And I hope the game is all you deserve/desire

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  3. No doubt about it, im kicking myself for not getting in on this.

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    1. Ah, Andy. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing and how often do we say, if only?

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  4. I does look a lot of lovely stuff, and as I said over in Michael's "Victorian Warfare" blog, it is one of the few kickstarters that I might have been tempted to back, however the prospect of having that much stuff arrive in need of painting would probably have put me off (as well as whatever you had to pay for all that!!).

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger. That's a fair point, mate. Mind you, regarding price, there were a lot of freebies and Kickstarter exclusives included, which will only increase in value. I look on it as an investment... that I wish to sell it.

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    2. Ha ha! like that's ever going to happen!! I hope you're fooling yourself Bryan, coz' you ain't foolin us..

      Cheers Roger ;-D

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    3. Yes, Roger... just kidding, of course! ;-)

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  5. My word you went really big Bryan, but I can understand why. Really enjoying my crawl around the early quests, but sadly work has got in the day this week.

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    1. Thanks, Michael. Once I decided I was going to back this I knew I had to pledge big time, otherwise I'd only have regretted missing out.

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  6. MASSIVE darkness indeed! Wow - and the quality of the sculpts stands out even in these 'group shots'.
    Often being a solo dungeoneer myself, I'll really be looking forward to hearing how the game plays...... and I still can't believe I knew nothing about this until so recently!!
    Congratulations on bagging such a bundle.

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    1. The darkness is massive, Greg. Being a backer of Zombicide: Black Plague, I had plenty of advance notice of this Kickstarter. Yes, it is another game designed for solo players, which was a huge influence in me backing it.

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  7. That's a lot of plastic. You have a lifetime of painting in front of you :)

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  8. Wow!! Those kickstarters really do pack an incredibly amount of mins at times, Bryan!! But which will you paint up first, "Dracula's America" or "Massive Darkness" - and will you have it done in time for the upcoming "Resident Evil 2" boardgame KS which starts in the autumn ;-)

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    1. Oh don't that Resident Evil game has already got me frantically saving my pennies and I may have a certain Star Wars game arriving tomorrow!

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    2. That's an easy one to answer, Simon, because I have already started painting my "Dracula's America" figures. There's less of them and they have vampires amongst them so it was a no-brainer. I know nothing about the "Resident Evil" Kickstarter. I'll need to know a lot more about it before I decide to back it but right now, my gut instinct is to let it pass.

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    3. @Michael. I have seen quite a bit about the new Star Wars game and I can safely say it is not for me, but I can see why any SW fan would want to buy it. Sad to say, I've rather gone off the whole "Star Wars" franchise. :-(

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  9. That's a great review. Thanks for that Bryan. I really like the concept of the monsters being controlled by AI and everyone being able to play on the same side.

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    1. I totally agree, Tim. That's one of the reasons why I love Zombicide so much. Massive Darkness shares much in common with it.

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