Six Gun Sound Scenario 01 - Gunfight at Stillwater

Finally I present my first ever Wild West batrep. This has been a long time in the coming but is something I have been dying to do ever since I started blogging. It has taken me a long time to build up my collection of Wild West buildings, figures and scenery in 28-32mm scale. Now my collection is of such a size that this batrep is possible. I am using the Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory rulebook with a few changes and additions from the upgraded, simpler and faster to play sequel. I much prefer the original version because it is so much more detailed.

This is my town set up, primarily using buildings from 4Ground. Now I know they are expensive, but to me the price is worth it because they are incredibly detailed and best of all, they come pre-painted. This is a huge time saver, however, I do paint the edges to blend in with the appropriate colour and to hide the dark wood. This is a tip I learnt from making my card buildings - always paint your edges.

The town of Stillwater, New Mexico is close to the border with Mexico. It has a main street running from south at the bottom of this photo to north at the top. A side street runs east and west.
As I said, most of my buildings are from 4Ground, but the one exception is the sheriff's office and jail, which I purchased from TT Combat. It came unpainted. Painting it wasn't too hard but it was time consuming. It did help me in that I used coloured card on the interior walls and I stuck black, fine-grade sandpaper on the roof.

This view of the crossroads shows from left to right at the top of the photo, a two-storey building under construction, the undertakers and across the street, the hardware store. A chuck wagon stands outside the store. This was a plastic construction kit in 1/48th scale that I bought many years ago. I don't know which company made it, but I do recall it was a Japanese company. Sadly, it did not come with horses.

At the western side of the main street is the only two-storey house in the town, with its family of four standing outside. Next to it is the land office and at the corner of the crossroads is Miss Kitty's Hotel, run by Kitty Trent. The name hotel is a bit misleading as the establishment is actually a brothel.

At the other side of the crossroads is Rogan's Bar, run by the strong-willed and tough miss Cathie Rogan. The upper floor is a bunkhouse for travellers looking for a cheap place to stay overnight. Next to the bar is a single-storey building under construction. The town is expanding northwards.

Here is a view up the side street. The two buildings at the bottom of the picture are single-storey houses for some of the town's residents. Some residents live and sleep in their own establishments.

In the north-east corner of the town is a small lake, from which the town got its name of Stillwater. This wonderful terrain piece came from Wargames Terrain Workshop, and its owner, Dave Stone, kindly painted it for me. I did ask him to and I was thrilled with the result. Dave added a rattlesnake to it, which is such a cool touch! It is only just visible at the top of the lake and directly below the topmost cactus. Note that my glasses are visible to the left of the house. I never noticed that they were there until after I'd posted this picture. Silly me!

The outdoor toilets are card models. The smaller one to the left was produced by World Works Games as part of their TLX Deadfall range. The larger one behind the sheriff's office was produced by Stoelzel's Structures as part of their Fatal Frontier set. I built two of each for my town.

And so we come to the scenario itself. I played a simple Gunfight encounter (p.35 of Blaze of Glory) and this was GF-2 where one side is outnumbered by the other. Obviously the encounter took place in town. The two female bandidas are after the four man outlaw gang after they shot and killed a good friend of theirs.

In this encounter the characters face off at the shortest effective range of all the characters involved. That was 8" for two of the outlaws. Although technically this is outlaws verses outlaws I called it outlaws verses bandidas, because the two females are Mexican outlaws known as bandidas. Note that males are known as bandidos.

The two females are from left to right Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez and both are Rep:5 Gunman Bandida Stars. Yes, I know this goes against the rules that a gang can only have one Star leader but I'm using a house rule that allows me two Stars as leaders. Sara has the Attributes Marksman, Lucky and Knife Fighter and she is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and four Throwing Knives. Maria has the Attributes  Marksman, Lucky and Resilient and is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols. These figures are from my Shadows of Brimstone collection. Maria is appropriately enough, a Mexican Bandida and Sara is actually a Bounty Hunter figure.

The four outlaws whom Maria and Sara are after are a mixed bunch. From left to right are Benito Zedilla, a Rep:4 Gunman Bandido Grunt, Andrew Calder, a Rep:4 Gunman Bounty Hunter Grunt, Thomas McKay, a Rep:4 Gunman Gunslinger Star and leader of this gang, and "Wild Willy" Wilkes, a Rep:4 Cowboy Mountain Man Grunt. Zedilla is armed with a 12 Gauge Scattergun and has the Attributes Marksman and Dumbass. Calder is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and has the Attributes Marksman and Initiative. McKay is armed with a Colt .45 Pistol and a .44 Derringer Pistol and has the Attributes Marksman, Nerves of Steel and Tough. Wilkes is armed with a Springfield .58 Rifle and a Bowie Knife and has the Attributes Brawler and Marksman. All four figures were produced by EM4 Miniatures.

Before the combat begins both sides must roll 2d6 verses their Sand scores for the Flinch test. Stars can choose their results, so Maria, Sara and McKay automatically passed 2d6 and could draw as normal. Zedilla and Calder also passed 2d6 but Wilkes only passed 1d6 and Flinched, giving him a -1d6 penalty on the Draw table.
Next, everyone rolled a number of d6 equal to their Rep for the Draw and applied appropriate modifiers. All Gunmen (that's everyone except Wilkes) got a +1d6 bonus and counted passes on 1 to 4 instead of 1 to 3 (this rule appears in the new version of Six Gun Sound and I liked it so much that I used it. Cowboys pass on rolls of 1 to 3 and Townsfolk on rolls of 1 to 2.). Zedilla suffered a -1d6 penalty for drawing a weapon that wasn't a pistol, derringer, knife or tomahawk. The same rule applied to Wilkes who decided to use his Rifle instead of his Knife. Finally, Wilkes suffered another -1d6 penalty for Flinching. Wilkes would only count passes on a 1 to 3 because he was a Cowboy, not a Gunman. So the results were as follows from highest to lowest -
Maria rolled 6d6 and passed 5.
Sara rolled 6d6 and passed 4.
Calder rolled rolled 5d6 and passed 3.
McKay rolled 5d6 and passed 2.
Wilkes rolled 2d6, and passed 2.
Zedilla rolled 3d6 and passed 1.

Shooting was carried out from highest result to lowest with ties being resolved simultaneously. When a character fires, it targets an opponent. That opponent must return fire. Each character must be targetted once before another character can be targetted twice. Maria went first and using her Marksman Attribute which allowed her to roll twice on the Ranged Combat table, counting the best result, but only for single shots. She fired once at Calder rolling a 5 and a 2. The 5 gave her a score of 10 because you add the dice roll to the character's Rep score. A 10 counted as a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table, she rolled a 9, which was a hit in the gut. If hit by a Pistol, Carbine, Scattergun at 3", Shotgun at 6", Rifle, Buffalo Gun or Tomahawk the character was Out Of Fight, otherwise, the character rolled on the I'm Hit table. So Calder measured his length on the ground and took no further part in the fight.

Next up Sara fired once at McKay and like Maria, she used her Marksman Attribute. She rolled a 6 and a 3. The 6 gave her a score of 11 - a hit and she got to choose the result on the Shooting Damage table for rolling so high. She chose result 5 - hit in the head and Obviously Dead. With McKay being a Star I rolled for his Star Power Advantage to reduce the damage he'd taken. He rolled 4d6 for his Rep score and needed results of 1 to 3. Unfortunately for him I rolled high with rolls of 6, 6, 5 and 4 - all misses and the two 6s reduced his Star Power Rep to 2. I could have used his Cheating Death Advantage, which would have allowed him to be removed from the table to a place of safety, but that would have reduced his Rep by one level to Rep:3. I decided not to bother because for narrative purposes it made sense that he got killed.

Next to fire was Wilkes. He fired his Rifle, which could only target one character per turn. He shot at Sara and using his Marksman Attribute rolled a 3 and a 3, giving him scores of 7 and 7 - both a miss.
Zedilla fired his Scattergun at Maria and it could hit three targets but Zedilla concentrated all three shots on Maria. He rolled 5,4 and 1, giving him results of 9, 8 and 5. The 9 was a hit, the 8 misses because it was the second or higher target, and the 5 was an obvious miss. When firing a Scattergun you roll twice on the Shooting Damage table and count both results. He rolled a 4 and a 7 on the Shooting Damage table scoring a hit in the leg and a hit in the gun arm (if this had been at range 3" or less, Maria would have been Out Of Fight but the range was 8") and forcing Maria to roll twice on the I'm Hit table to see what the extent of her injuries are. She rolled 2d6 verses her Toughness of 5 and passed 2d6 twice, scoring a just a scratch result. She remained standing but must take the Being Shot At test.
At this point with everyone still standing and having fired, Reaction Tests had to be taken. I used the Reaction Test tables from the second edition rules. Stars can choose their result so Maria and Sara therefore chose to pass 2d6 verses their Rep and could Return Fire. Zedilla and Wilkes had to roll for Being Shot At and Man Down. They only rolled once but applied the worst result of the two tables. They both passed 2d6 giving them a Return Fire result on the Being Shot At table and a Carry On result on the Man Down table. Therefore they took the Carry On result, which allowed them to act as normal. And yes, this would allow them to Return Fire if they wanted to and more importantly, if they were able to, because Maria and Sara were about to Return Fire.

Maria shot first and once again used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Zedilla. I should point out that Marksman is a Class Ability that all Gunmen characters receive. She rolled a 5 and a 2, giving her scores of 10 and 7. Obviously, she took the 10, which was a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table she scored a 9. Zedilla was hit in the gut and was Out Of Fight.

Next it was Sara's turn to shoot. She used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Wilkes with her Colt .45 Pistol. She rolled a 6 and a 1, giving her scores of 11 and 6. The 11 was an excellent result as it allowed her to choose the result on the Damage table without having to roll for it. She chose result 12 - hit in the chest and Obviously Dead.

And so the Gunfight at Stillwater came to a bloody end with the four outlaws lying dead and dying in the dirt. Maria and Sara had avenged their friend and they left town for further adventures. Neither increased in Reputation.
Conclusion
I played this game on a 4' by 3' table and I didn't think the buildings I had would fill the table. Individually they don't have big footprints but when put together, I was surprised at how much space they took up. I may have to get a 6' by 4' battle mat for future games as there are still a lot more buildings I want to buy, some of which have much bigger footprints, such as the 4Ground livery stable and corral or the 4Ground bank or the 4Ground Sassy Gal saloon. Playing this certainly gave me food for thought. I also want more scatter terrain, fences and saddled horses with and without riders.
As for the rules, I'm fortunate in being very familiar with the Two Hour Games rule systems. However, Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory is different to many other THW games in that it is incredibly detailed. For example, it has rules for hitting various body parts on humans and horses and more detailed rules for cover, horses and wagons. I love this extra level of detail and so I'm a huge fan of this game.
To be honest the game went pretty much the way I thought it would. Maria and Sara had the advantage of higher Reps but the outlaws had the advantage of numbers. Unfortunately for them, they didn't make it count. When Calder and McKay went down, Zedilla and Wilkes could have turned the tide but Wilkes missed and although Zedilla scored a hit on Maria, she shrugged it off. Bad news for them!
I know that this batrep was very rules heavy and that was deliberate. After all, this was my first Six Gun Sound batrep, and I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with the rules. I would hope that future batreps would be more narrative driven with fewer references to the rules. Now that I have played my first Wild West batrep, you can expect a lot more.

Now then, in my last post I asked you to name the film in which Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz played Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez respectively? The answer is Bandidas, a 2006 French/Mexican/American comedy/action Western film directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg and produced and written by Luc Besson. It tells the tale of two very different women in late 19th century Mexico who become a bank robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorising their town. It is very much a popcorn movie, not to be taken seriously but it is a lot of fun and Salma and Penelope are so lovable and so beautiful you can't help but like them. Here's some photos of them.

Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez played by Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz.

Maria teaches Sara how to shoot. She is not so good with a pistol but an expert at knife throwing.

Maria the feisty, poor peasant girl with her twin Colt .45 revolvers.

Sara, pampered daughter of a rich landowner, takes aim with her Colt.45 revolver.

A scene near the end of the film taken after a running battle on a train.

Maria and Sara looking so cute and adorable. Who couldn't fall in love with them?

Dead Man's Hand Civilians 01

Anyone interested in playing Wild West games in 28mm - 32mm scale, can't have failed to notice just how many companies cater to this range. There are lots! 😊 My favourites are Black Scorpion, Flying Frog Productions, North Star and Reaper. I have just started collecting figures from the Knuckleduster Miniatures 32mm Gunfighters' Ball range and I like them so much, I want them all! I tend to favour the larger scale figures but I am quite happy to mix and match 32mm scale figures with 28mm scale figures. Last month, I purchased some furniture items and civilian figures from the Dead Man's Hand 28mm scale range, and it is these civilians I want to showcase here.

These three figures are from the Civilian Bank Figures Set and have been designed for use with the 4Ground Bank, although there is no reason why you couldn't use them with any other bank you have. The female included in this set could be a secretary working at the bank or, more likely, is a customer.

The two males are obviously bank staff. The elderly gentleman in the centre is holding a large book, probably an accounts ledger. The younger male at the right is surrendering, no doubt the victim of a bank robbery. I have yet to name any of these characters and the 4Ground Bank is still on my shopping list, but it is a model I will definitely be buying. This set of three figures costs just £5.00.

This next set is the Civilian Bar Staff Set, or more specifically, Rogan's Bar Staff. Rogan's Bar is another 4Ground model, and I do have it made and painted, which is the main reason I particularly wanted this set. Yet again, you could use any appropriate figures to replace these three, but I was happy to use these "officially" produced miniatures.

At the far left is Cathie "Cat" Rogan, the daughter of the bar's original owner, Jim Rogan, who was murdered 10 miles out of town a few years ago. No one knows who killed him or why, but they hadn't counted on Cat being so determined to make a success of the bar. Cat is cool, determined and resourceful, with a good head for business. Three years ago, she extended the bar upwards by adding a bunkhouse for travellers to rest overnight. 

The two males are the middle-aged bartender, holding a bottle, and an elderly general assistant who is brushing the floor. I have yet to give them names. This set of figures also costs £5.00 for all three.

This photo, taken from the Dead Man's Hand webstore, shows the three staff members standing outside Rogan's Bar. Note that I have based my figures on 20mm diameter slottabases, for two reasons - one, it gives them a smaller footprint, and seeing as they are in static poses, works well for them, and two, it just gives them a bit more height against my 32mm scale figures.

The third set I bought was the Undertaker's Staff Set. Yet again, these were designed to go with the 4Ground Undertaker's building, which I do have, and it is also made and painted. According to the signs on the building, it belongs to one C.F. Caldwell, so I named the undertaker, standing at the far left, Charles Franklin Caldwell.

In the centre of the trio is the firm's carpenter, who not only makes coffins, but also furniture items as well. At the far right is the firm's young assistant and general dogsbody. I shall name these two in due course. Yet again, this set of figures costs £5.00.

This photo, is also taken from the Dead Man's Hand webstore and shows the three figures inside the Undertaker's building. Here's a link to the webstore - http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/deadmanshand/dmhminiatures/civilians.html
Whilst not essential purchases, these will help populate my towns and make for useful bystanders and NPCs. They are very well sculpted but note that they are true 28mm scale, which makes them look a bit small when compared to 32mm scale figures. This doesn't bother me, but it might be a concern to some of you. Note that they come with integral metal bases and not slottabases.

Vampifan's Views 95 - Monthly Musings 68

Hello and welcome to another of my Monthly Musings. This month's Vampirella picture is the second of a series of three paintings by Bo Hampton featuring Vampirella and Batman. I'm not sure why Vampi is hitching a ride on Batman's back when she can fly! Perhaps she wants to keep that ability a secret from the Caped Crusader.

Once again, I have had a very prolific month hobby-wise. I managed to finish painting my figures for the Death Match sci-fi gladiatorial game, although I'm still missing a few monsters. That will hopefully be rectified next month.

There are two games that I'm currently very passionate about - Dracula's America and N.E.W. I have a load of Weird West 28mm scale figures on my painting table right now, including some of the official Dracula's America figures and some Shadows of Brimstone figures, which are almost done.  I have bought quite a few Weird West figures this past month, including 5 vampires from New Line Miniatures, 13 assorted Wild West figures from the Reaper Chronoscope range (10 humans and 3 zombie miners), and I also backed a short run Kickstarter (it only lasted four days) by Bad Squiddo Games called My Last Sunrise, which contained 7 vampires, 6 vampire hunters and 2 monsters. I'm expecting delivery of them within the next few days as Annie wanted to get the figures out very quickly and she very kindly e-mailed me last night to tell me the figures were on their way. I've also been buying and making more Old West buildings from 4Ground. They are currently offering the Rogan's Bar and Bunkhouse complete set for £22.00 instead of £47.50, which was too good a bargain for me to pass by.

Rogan's Bar and Bunkhouse photo taken from the 4Ground website

Every Wild West town needs at least one saloon and this is my first. For that price, I was very pleased to buy it, as it is quite a big kit. By the way, my building looks a lot better than the one shown in the photo above because I paint all of the dark brown edges to match their surrounding colours. It makes my buildings look more realistic and less like a model kit. It is time consuming and fiddly (especially painting the window frames) but well worth the effort in the end. I'm slowly building up a nice collection of Wild West buildings (all from 4Ground so far) but I'd like a few more before I start posting any batreps.

The other game that I'm really enjoying playing is N.E.W. by EN Publishing. Yes, I have set up another blog, which is dedicated to the What's Old Is New role-playing games (see here - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.co.uk/ ). So why am I mentioning it here? I recently played a big game using the N.E.W. rules that I want to bring to your attention. It was based on the introductory scenario, A Meeting of Metal from the Warlord Games Doctor Who skirmish game - Exterminate! I converted the stats for the Cybermen and the Daleks to N.E.W. and played a most enjoyable game that must have been unique, because I don't know of anyone else who has played Exterminate! with the N.E.W. rules. Now I know that most of you are not fans of N.E.W. and I'm fine with that. But I also know that quite a few of you are Doctor Who fans, and so it is to you that I'm giving this heads up. I'll be posting part 1 of this batrep in a few days time, so if you want to give it a view please drop by at my WOIN blog. Here is a photo of the initial set up.

Twelve Cybermen versus seven Daleks as they battle to control the most Vortex Nodes. Who will win?
I did think that working on two blogs would have had a bigger impact on the number of posts I put out per month but actually, the numbers are very good. Seven posts for my Undead blog and eight posts for my WOIN blog this month is way above average for a month. I guess it helped that I already had 10 posts all fully prepared before I even posted the first one for my WOIN blog. It is unlikely that I'll be posting any Monthly Musings on my WOIN blog, so expect some crossover content in future Monthly Musings on this blog. The WOIN Blog has been well received so far. I was extremely delighted to have Russ Morrissey, the author of O.L.D. and N.E.W. as one of my first followers. He asked me if I had thought of publishing my The Ace of Spades Campaign as a book, which I hadn't, but now that he has put the idea into my head it won't let go. It won't happen soon but once I'm well into the campaign I will give it serious consideration. I'd also like to give a big shout out and thank you to Andy, Dave and Greg as the only three followers who have commented on every post so far. Thanks, guys, your enthusiastic support is greatly appreciated.
Just as I have been buying quite a few new figures for my Weird West games, the same is true for my N.E.W. games. I have recently bought a fair few 28mm scale figures from the Alternative Armies range of Ganesha Games sci-fi range and from the Space Vixens From Mars range of sci-fi figures. Most of these have already been painted. In addition, my range of miniature starships has grown considerably. My package of 30 starships from the Stars Reach Kickstarter by Twilight Game Designs arrived and I have also bought 10 merchant ships from Brigade Models (they have a huge range of starships). Starship combat is something I'm very keen to try out when I start my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I'm not planning on any large scale fleet battles (that doesn't mean it might not happen!) but I'll mainly be concentrating on small scale skirmishes involving The Ace of Spades.
The one thing I am most looking forward to in September is taking delivery of my Battle Systems Sci-fi Terrain sets. I made a huge pledge for this Kickstarter last year and I can't wait to get my hands on these new sets. The Urban Apocalypse sets that I already have are superb and are much loved by me. With these new sci-fi sets my Judge Dredd games will be vastly improved and of course, the new sets will feature heavily in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I'm expecting delivery of them in the next week or two. Oh, happy days!

Battle Systems Sci-Fi Terrain Set - this is all you get in just one set. I ordered lots of sets! Mega City One, here I come!

Thanks for reading and take care.

Vampifan's Views 82 - Monthly Musings 56

Another month is almost over and that means it's time for another one of my Monthly Musings posts. As always I start off with a picture of my beloved Vampirella. Once again, this delightful portrait has been painted by the extremely talented Joe Jusko, my favourite Vampirella artist. It is rare to see Vampi wearing a cloak.

I haven't done much in the way of gaming this month, although I did manage to play a game of Zombicide, which I recorded as a three part batrep on my blog. That was fun but it didn't work out as I was hoping it would and I lost two of my four Survivors. Not a good result at all.

On the modelling front I have had a very busy month. I have made a new 4Ground 28mm scale MDF Wild West building - a Hardware Store. Most 4Ground buildings come without furnishings but I have been adding lots of interior detail to this particular model. After a very long absence (too long, to be honest) I have got back to making card buildings and card furnishings. I made a couple of World Works Games Wild West outdoor toilets and loads of furniture items for my Wild West buildings, including the aforementioned Hardware Store. In addition, I have also made every single figure I own for Shadows of Brimstone. There were a LOT of figures to make as I have been buying quite a few expansion sets for the game since the start of the New Year. All have been based and had their bases textured and all have been primed. I have finished painting a few of them and have a lot more on my painting desk. I am really into this game and I'm focussing all of my attention on it. You can expect to see a lot of posts about Shadows of Brimstone on both of my blogs over the coming months.

This seems like a good time to show you all of the sets I have bought for Shadows of Brimstone. At Christmas 2015 I bought the two starter sets for the game. First up was City of the Ancients, which features the other world of the frozen over Targa Plateau, a dead world that has slipped into an Ice Age. This game can be played in the ruins of a frozen city on Targa or in the mines near the cursed town of Brimstone.

The second starter set I bought for myself was Swamps of Death, which features as its other world, the Swamps of Jargano. This hot and humid swampland is populated with dangerous plants and creatures. The double-sided map tiles feature the Jargano swamps on one side and an abandoned mine on the other. Undead fans should note that this is the set that contains the zombie figures.

The first big expansion set I bought was the excellent Frontier Town. Of all the sets for the game this one is by far, my favourite. After each adventure in the mines or on another world, the Heroes can visit a town to sell their loot, restock on supplies or heal any injuries. What this expansion does is offer far more choices for what happens in town and on the way there as well as providing options for the size of the town and the type of town. All of which is great, but when you add in the options for having separate adventures in town, you soon come to realise that this is a "must have" expansion set. The board for the town encounters is a work of art and quite stunning.

My most recent acquisition for Shadows of Brimstone was this expansion set, Caverns of Cynder. This provides an extra other world setting, the burning Caverns of Cynder, home to many dark and ancient evils such as the fiendish Lava Men. This set is severely lacking in figures, just three 28mm scale Lava Men are included, but it more than makes up for that with its game tiles, counters, rules and scenarios. The double-sided game tiles feature another abandoned mine on one side and the Caverns of Cynder on the other side. Note that all three mines featured in the sets are different and you can mix and match them if you wanted to create your own scenario adventures.

Next up were a pair of giant monsters I bought. These are mightily impressive beasts, standing roughly 75mm tall and fitting on 60mm diameter bases. The Dark Stone Hydra does not come from an other world but is a mutated rattlesnake found in the area surrounding Brimstone and created by the twisting powers of Dark Stone, which releases Void energy to any who come in contact with it for too long a period. The Dark Stone Hydra is fast and deadly. It regenerates damage done to it every Turn although it does lose power the more heads it loses.

The Guardian of Targa is a gigantic and terrifying construct, found in the deserted frozen cities on the Targa Plateau. Its Hardened Shell has withstood the ages and can easily withstand simple gunfire. Though mainly a melee fighter with its four crushing arms, the Guardian also has a burning laser it can fire from its single lifeless eye at the start of each Turn. Though difficult to destroy, the Guardian can have its Control Systems damaged as it takes Wounds, reducing its effectiveness as more and more of its systems shut down and its arms go dead.

Finally, I also bought four more sets of figures and whilst they are all a lot smaller than the Hydra and the Guardian, they are still very nasty threats to the Heroes.

The Custodians of Targa comes with two types of enemy - a pair of Targa Pylons and a trio of Custodians of Targa. Stats and cards for the Pylons can be found in the City of the Ancients set but the Pylons themselves are represented by card counters. This set includes actual 3D models of them, which are far cooler. The Custodians are repair robots who can heal themselves and the Pylons of any damage taken. The Custodians and the Pylons are armed with defensive lasers.

The Masters of the Void set contains 3 large Void Hounds and 3 Void Sorcerers. Void Hounds lay in wait within the Void, choosing the right time to strike. Attacking as a pack, they phase in and out of reality as they move, giving them a variable Defence value. Void Sorcerers are predominantly ranged enemies, preferring to strike from a distance by firing Void Bolts as they chant their foul spells. Their powerful Magik both protects them and allows them to rain down destruction on their foes.

 The Scafford Gang is a motley crew of Mutant Outlaws, each plagued with mutations of various sizes and shapes. They are led by Colonel Benjamin Scafford, a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War and a hardened soldier. His strong leadership and ruthless cunning have earned him the unending loyalty of his gang and made him one of the most successful Outlaws of all time. This set contains 7 figures - Colonel Scafford and 6 Mutant Outlaws sculpted in 2 poses.

The Serpentmen of Jargano are an indigenous race from that world. Fiercely tribal, the Serpentmen have built a civilisation on brutal warfare and massive stone temples to their Serpent Gods. They stalk the swamps, hunting their prey and protecting their territory from outsiders and other tribes that would conquer their lands. Though highly intelligent, they are cold-blooded killers, calculating and ruthless. This set contains 1 Serpentman Shaman and 6 Warriors sculpted in 2 poses.

There are other sets available for the game and new sets are being made all of the time. I won't be purchasing them all but I will try to buy those that catch my eye. Even though I have painted a few figures for this game, I'm not quite ready to showcase them just yet. So, next month will mainly be taken up with reviews of the figures from the Zombicide: Black Plague boxed set. Oh, and there will probably be another Zombicide batrep. Quite a few of you wanted to know what happened to Elsa and Gary after their fateful encounter with the Crowz. All will be revealed.

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.