Vampifan's Views 92 - Monthly Musings 65

Reflection of Vampirella by Mike Mayhew

I have had a great month, which I can't wait to tell you about. But first, I begin as always, with a portrait of my beloved Vampirella. This stunning piece was painted by Mike Mayhew, a highly talented comic artist, whose work has featured on a few of my previous blog postings.

So, what have I been working on these past four weeks? On the painting and modelling front, I have mainly been concentrating on my N.E.W. sci-fi campaign. I have repainted and rebased a lot of my old sci-fi figures so that I can use them in this new venture. I have also been buying some new figures of alien races to use in the campaign. The heroes of the campaign will be the all female crew of "The Ace of Spades" scout ship. They are all completed and I have photographed them so that I can show them to you soon. The miniature starship I'm using for "The Ace of Spades" has been painted and based.

To help aid in any starship combats I may do in the campaign, I bought a 3' by 3' stars mousepad gaming mat made of synthetic cloth from Deep Cut Studios. I'm a huge fan of these types of gaming mats. I paid a bit extra to have a hex grid printed on the mat, which they did in a very subtle, understated manner. You have to look very closely to see the hex grid. Note that the photo to the left of here is of the 6' by 4' mat without the hex grid, but it gives you a good idea of what the mat looks like.
In addition to this, I have also been churning out NPC record sheets and printed gaming aids. There is a lot of work to do when setting up a sci-fi role-playing campaign but I am extremely enthusiastic about this project that it is all time well spent.

Just over a week ago I received this bundle of Doctor Who goodies from Warlord Games, containing the Exterminate! miniatures skirmish game, which pits the Cybermen against the Daleks, and the two expansion packs featuring Davros and 12 more Daleks and Missy and 12 more Cybermen. Davros and Missy are metal figures, whilst the Cybermen and Daleks are multi-piece plastic kits, that can snap together very easily. As most gamers will probably do, I glued mine together. Despite some criticism of how awkward the Daleks were to assemble, I had no problems with mine. They all fitted together perfectly. The Cybermen come with three different bodies and three different right arms, allowing for lots of variety. Although the Daleks are all in the same pose, I found it very easy to bend their eye-stalks,  manipulator arms and weapon arms to give them some variety as well. Plus, you can paint leader or named Daleks in different colours. I haven't played the game yet but having read the rules, it looks like a simple game to play. The rules remind me a lot of the Project Z rules (also by Warlord Games), which I was highly critical of. Until I actually play a game or two I'll keep an open mind on the rules. I certainly can't fault the figures. They are all beautiful sculpts. Incidentally, the rules do allow for the inclusion of the Doctor and his companions and a few alien races (Judoon, Silence and Zygons).

I forgot to mention in last month's musings that I had been invited to take part in Tim's (aka Dark Eyed Warrior) Pathfinder fantasy campaign called "Keep on the Borderland". It is a very long time since I did any fantasy role-playing and whilst I have never played Pathfinder before, it shares much in common with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, so I wasn't too far out of my depth. I play a mightily strong 1st Level human fighter called Per, who has only recently joined the party of adventurers in their quest to clear a passage through the Menador Mountains for caravans to travel safely between the five towns that border the pass. You can read about how the party is getting on here - http://wargamersparadise.blogspot.co.uk/
Tim weaves a fascinating tale in his play by e-mail campaign and I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience, simply because it is such a huge departure for me.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the month was getting to meet Dave Stone, the head of Wargames  Terrain Workshop. As readers of this blog will know, I'm a huge fan of Dave's work and he kindly agreed to come and visit me so that we could spend a full day gaming and chatting. Dave is every bit as enthusiastic about our hobby as I am, and was a great conversationalist. He told me of many of his plans for future projects, which whilst I was not sworn to secrecy about, I'd rather keep quiet about until Dave is ready to reveal the relevant info. Suffice to say, I was drooling at the prospect of just what is planned!

We got to play two games during a very late evening session. The first game was Dave's sci-fi gladiatorial game called Death Match, which has only just been released on his webstore. This game really appealed to me. Dave kindly sent me a pre-release copy of the rules to play-test, which I did. I even made my own Death Match arena. I ordered the four-player game from Dave, which he brought with him to save posting it to me. What was even better, he also brought along all of his painted figures for the game. WOW! I was gob-smacked at A) how well painted they were (you can tell that Dave is a master painter) and B) just how tall many of them are. Believe me, the photos on his webstore give you no indication of how tall they actually are. For example, the female Arachnid must be about 4-5" in diameter and 2-3" tall. She is a beast in every sense of the word!
So, we played a game with Dave taking a Ceratid male (a rhino-like humanoid) and me taking a Scabendi male (a reptilian humanoid). And, yes, we did use Dave's painted figures. Before we began, Dave told me he always got beat at Death Match, especially when playing against his wife. Well, it was to be Dave's lucky night because things went bad for me from the start, rolling double ones for my activation (the worst possible result!) and proceeded to go downhill from there. I was soundly beaten by Dave, but I can't complain. He was by far, the better player on the night, and I refuse to blame my bad dice rolling.
I plan on giving this excellent little skirmish game a full review on my blog in the near future. I just want to get my figures painted for it first. I also plan on investing heavily in this game. I especially want the full 3D arena Dave is hoping to bring out for it. Dave has also told me about the new expansion races he wants to add, and one of them, the feline race, has me very excited.
The second game we played was the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. This was a continuation of my campaign and I let Dave play the Justice Department (led, of course, by Judge Stone) and I played the perps. Full details will appear in my next post as another Comic Life batrep. This was the first time Dave had played this game and he took to it very well.
It is unusual for me to get any visitors, seeing as I live so far north, and even rarer to have a gaming friend come visit, so I'm sure you can imagine just what a thrill this was for me. Dave was the perfect guest and I'm sure this visit will cement our friendship even further. It will certainly linger in my memory for a very long time. Dave, mate, you more than made my day - you made my year!

Finally, I haven't forgotten about the prize draw competition I set a couple of weeks ago. I'll post the results of the winners some time in June, just in case anyone else still wants to enter. One change I am prepared to make, seeing as some entrants came from abroad, is that if you'd prefer a straight cash prize instead of a gift voucher I can do that providing you have a PayPal account. This also applies to UK-based entrants. Have fun and thanks for reading!

Deep Cut Studio - Steppe Terrain Mat

The Deep Cut Studio Steppe Terrain Mat measuring 4' by 4'.

As you will know from my previous posts I am now actively pursuing my passion for Wild West gaming. I mentioned last time that I had the rules I wanted to use, a small collection of 28mm scale figures and a pitiful amount of scenery and buildings. But there was one thing I neglected to mention - some kind of gaming board on which I could play my games. Admittedly, I have the card tiles that come with the two starter sets for Shadows of Brimstone, but they are only of use for mines and/or other world exploration. I had nothing for encounters in town or out on the wide open plains.
So I started looking for solutions. One option would have been to use the card terrain from the World Works Games set - Streets of Blood. I use card terrain gaming boards from Stoelzel's Structures and World Works Games for my contemporary urban games. But I knew this would be a very time consuming process and I wanted a simpler solution. A while ago I stumbled across a website selling terrain mats. That site was run by Deep Cut Studios - see here - http://www.deepcutstudios.com/  My search was over. Now I just had to decide which mat was most appropriate for my needs. Because they are expensive I wanted something that would give me the most "bang for my buck" i.e. something that I could use for multiple settings, not just the Wild West. So, I chose the Steppe mat from their large range of designs. This is such a generic design that it can be used in so many settings and genres and it suits my needs perfectly. When you come to order your mat you have two decisions to make after you've chosen your desired terrain - material and size.

Close up detail of the Steppe mat.

More close up detail of the Steppe mat

The mats come in a choice of three materials - PVC, Cloth and Mouse-pad. The features of the PVC mat are -
– Made from high durability PVC
– Non textured gaming surface with a high quality printed picture
– Resistant to scratch and tear as well as dirt stains
– Compatible with water based pens
– Shipping tubes can be used as easy storage
– The choice for a sturdy and cost friendly battlefield

Further close up detail of the Steppe mat.

PVC is the cheapest option available.




If you opt for a Cloth mat its features are -
– Made from lightweight synthetic cloth
– The paints are soaked into the material and will never scratch or fade off
– Can be machine washed or ironed with steam
– The choice for an ultra-portable battlefield
Cloth is more expensive than PVC but cheaper than Mouse-pad.







Finally, the features of a Mouse-pad mat are -
 – Made from synthetic cloth with a 2mm thick rubber foam backing
– The paints are soaked into the material and will never scratch or fade off
– Non slippery backing to keep the mat on the table
– Instant matt flatness and smooth gaming surface
– Soft rubber foam allows you to pick up cards easy and roll the dice without a sound
– The choice for a premium gaming table
This is the most expensive option but also the best. It is the option that I chose. Note, that if you want, the mat can be manufactured with any size grid or hexes as well as tailored to a custom size table. This will, however, cost you extra. I just wanted my mat to be left gridless.

The mats come in a choice of three sizes - 3' by 3', 4' by 4' and 4' by 6'. I chose the 4' by 4' option for my mat. Mouse-pad mats are becoming more and more popular. The gaming mats used by Battle Systems for their Urban Apocalypse, Fantasy and Sci-fi sets are 2' by 2' Mouse-pads. I'll be getting a load of them when they start delivering their Urban Apocalypse terrain for their recent Kickstarter this summer. Mantic Games are offering 52cm square Mouse-pad mats for their The Walking Dead game as an alternative to their paper mats. I have one already for the Mantic Games Mars Attack game.
As I said earlier, I wanted a gaming mat that was versatile. Obviously, my Steppe Terrain Mat will see most use in Wild West games. It is good enough for encounters in town or out on the plains. I can also use it for rural settings for post-apocalypse games like All Things Zombie, contemporary games like 7TV2e, sci-fi games like the Cursed Earth setting for Judge Dredd or something entirely different like perhaps, an Antediluvian Adventures setting featuring cavemen and dinosaurs. There are endless possibilities.
The 4' by 4' Mouse-pad Steppe Terrain Mat that I bought cost £43.90 plus £9.90 for post and packing. Yes, it is expensive but is, I believe, a worthwhile investment that will last me a lifetime.