Resident Evil 2 Zombies 02

I continue my look at some of the 32mm scale plastic zombie figures produced for the Resident Evil 2 board-game by Steam Forged Games. These 12 figures were part of the expansion sets. Individually, they are not much of a threat with a Move of 1, Health of 1, Threat Level of 1 and they inflict 1 point of damage. They have just one special ability which is Suicide Lunge. With an attack range of 1 instead of their normal attack range of 0 , the zombie performs a move reaction then attacks. This attack cannot be evaded. After resolving the attack, the Zombie is killed.

As with the 12 zombies I showed last time, these come in three different poses made up of four figures.

These four are advancing with their right arm stretched out. The one on the far right of each set has been painted as an African American, hence his darker skin colour. All of them have been given different coloured clothing and hair.

Next up are four more males, casually dressed in T-shirts and shambling forward in search of fresh blood.

Once again, in order to provide some individuality amongst them, I have painted them in different coloured clothing and hair colours.

Finally are more shambling male zombies. To make each one look unique I have varied where their wounds are as well as giving them all different coloured clothing and hair.

Coupled with the 12 zombies I showed in my last post and the final batch left to paint you end up with about three dozen zombies, which is a decent sized horde. I have no criticism to make of the sculpts but I do wish there were more female zombies in the mix. Just four female zombies out of so many is a poor showing.

Resident Evil 2 Zombies 01

Obviously with a game like Resident Evil 2 you are going to get a lot of zombie figures and I certainly did buying all of the expansion sets when the game was released on Kickstarter. I haven't painted all of them yet but I have painted two dozen of them, which is more than enough for most games. This post covers the 12 zombie figures that came with the starter boxed set.

I start of with four policemen from the Racoon City Police Department who would obviously be in the front-line once the zombie apocalypse began.

The boxed set comes with three sets of four identically posed 32mm scale zombies. I have made these four look unique by simply giving them different hair colours. Also, for each set of four, I have painted one as an African American with darker skin. He or she will be the one at the far right.

The next four males are advancing with their left arms stretched out to grab hold of a victim. "I'm coming to get you, Barbara!"

Because these were once civilians I was able to make them look unique by giving them different coloured clothing and hair.

Finally, we have four female zombies with pageboy hairstyles that covers their left eye. Note that all of these figures are sculpted onto 20mm diameter bases which I have covered with sand and gravel.

Once again, by painting them with different coloured hair and clothing I was able to make each one appear to be a unique model.
Although designed to be used with the Resident Evil 2 board-game, there is no reason why you couldn't use them in any other contemporary or near future zombie apocalypse game. I had a lot of fun painting them. I always enjoy painting zombies.

Resident Evil 2 Giant Alligator & Giant Spiders

The biggest and most impressive looking model that I got with my Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter set was the Giant Alligator. It is huge! Suffice to say, I wanted to get it painted asap, even though it takes no part in the basic core game. Also, at the same time, I painted the pair of Giant Spiders, which are also an optional expansion set. I have included my figure of Vampifan in these photos to give you a sense of scale of the monsters.

The Giant Alligator is a Boss level creature, meaning it acts differently to normal monsters in the game. It has three special abilities. First up is Relentless. Before drawing a card from the behaviour deck, the Giant Alligator performs a move towards the active character. Second is Scaly Hide. The Giant alligator cannot be damaged by attacks and does not use a health dial. Thirdly is Driven Back. If the Giant Alligator is hit by an attack, reduce its movement from 2 to 1 for the remainder of the activation.

Instead of performing actions, each Boss has a unique behaviour deck which dictates how it moves and attacks. When a character is on the same tile as a Boss, instead of drawing a card from the tension deck, in their Tension Phase, they draw a card from the boss's behaviour deck and resolve the sequence on the card from top to bottom.

The Giant Spiders have a movement rate of 1 and 3 wounds. They have two special abilities. First is Burn It! Damage caused by flames or fire against a Giant Spider is doubled. Second is Poisonous Charge. During Arachnid Charge movement, the Giant spider moves through any square occupied by another character. Any character contacted suffers the Pushed and Poisoned effects.

An Arachnid Charge allows the Giant Spider to move 3 squares towards the active character. They are fast and deadly!
For painting the Alligator I referenced photos of real life alligators on Google Images. On my first visit to Florida, USA, my family and I visited a place called Gator World, which was full of these beasts, I thought they were cool, but my parents were glad to leave the place! To them it was too hot (being outdoors there was no air conditioning), too smelly (yes, they did smell) and they found the alligators too repulsive, whereas I thought they were fascinating. The colour scheme for the two spiders came from their character record cards that came with them. It is very striking! These creatures could appear in many a post apocalypse game, including Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. I could just imagine the Giant Alligator residing in the Undercity of Mega City One and the spiders living out in the Cursed Earth.

Resident Evil 2 Lickers & Zombie Dogs

After painting the four heroes for the basic game of Resident Evil 2 by Steam Forged Games, I turned my attention to some of the enemies they would encounter. Strictly speaking, I should have started with the Zombies as they are the common enemy who appear in every scenario, but instead I opted to paint some of the uncommon and rare foes. In this post I'm reviewing two of the uncommon foes - Lickers and Zombie Dogs. Note that in each photo, I have included my 28mm scale figure of Vampifan to give you an idea of the scale of the enemies.

Lickers are skinless mutants with long prehensile tongues and claws. They are very adept at climbing walls and ceilings, not unlike a spider. In the game, they have a movement rate of 1 and 3 wounds, making them tough opponents. Their special ability is Scuttler. A licker makes a move reaction every time a character on the same tile or a linked tile performs a move action, unless the character began the move in the same square as the Licker.

The two Lickers to the left of the photos are normal Lickers. The two to the right are slightly different with a much longer central claw on their hands. These are Evolved Lickers. In game terms, Evolved Lickers move 2 squares and cause 2 points of damage as opposed to 1 by a normal Licker. Both types of Licker may attack a character who is one square away from them or in their same square. Lickers are nasty!

Next up are the Zombie Dogs. They only have 1 wound but can move 2 squares and they have the Pack Mentality special ability. Before resolving a Rabid Chase attack, all Zombie Dogs on the same and any linked tiles as the active character perform a move reaction.

Although Zombie Dogs are just as easy to kill as human Zombies, they are much faster and close in on you in no time at all.
These are great figures and they were very easy to paint. I do like the fact that they are all unique sculpts. The Zombie Dogs are sculpted on 20mm diameter bases and the Lickers are on bases measuring 20mm by 40mm.

Resident Evil 2 Heroes 01

Last month I finished painting the four Hero characters from the Resident Evil 2 game by Steamforged Games. Each character comes with multiple figures. Made of hard plastic, they are 32mm scale and are realistically proportioned, meaning they do look slimmer than many other 32mm scale figures like those from Mantic's The Walking Dead range.

First up is Claire Redfield, a college student who is looking for her missing brother, Chris. The figure at the far left is the one you get with the starter boxed set. She is armed with a pistol and a knife. The figure in the centre was a Kickstarter exclusive and has Claire armed with a grenade launcher. The third figure in line was a Kickstarter stretch goal and has Claire armed with a revolver.

In the game, her special ability is Made in Heaven. Once per scenario, Claire can spend an action to heal another character on the same tile by two levels.

Next up is Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie police officer who arrives in the doomed Raccoon City late for his first day on the job only to confront a zombie outbreak first hand. As the main protagonist of the video game, he comes with four figures. The one at the far left comes with the starter boxed set and has him armed with a pistol and knife. Next in line is a bandaged version of Leon carrying a custom pistol. He was a Kickstarter exclusive. As was the third figure in line, which is a more stripped down version of the first figure in line. Finally is another Kickstarter exclusive which has Leon armed with a shotgun and in civilian clothing.

In the game, Leon's special ability is Cool Under Fire. Once per activation, Leon may use an item while one or more enemies are in his square without making an evade roll. Note, this includes any weapon he is carrying.

Next up is Ada Wong, a spy for an unnamed rival company who is sent to recover a sample of the deadly G-virus from Umbrella's lab in the zombie-infested Raccoon City. The figure of her at the far left is the one you get with the starter boxed set and she is carrying a pistol in one hand and a key in the other hand. The alternative version was a Kickstarter exclusive with her armed with a bow gun. In the game she has two special abilities. First is Reckless. At the end of any character's activation (including her own), Ada may take an out of sequence activation. After doing so, she must forfeit her following activation. Secondly, she has Intrigue. Once per scenario, Ada may discard a card drawn from the tension deck without resolving the effects.

Finally, is Robert Kendo, the owner of a gun store in Raccoon City. The figure of Robert armed with the shotgun is the one that comes with the starter boxed set. The other version was a Kickstarter exclusive that has him armed with a high calibre Magnum pistol. His special ability is Marksman. Once per activation, Robert may re-roll all of the dice from an attack roll, providing the weapon used was not a knife. He must keep the results of the second roll.
I do like these figures. They are well sculpted and posed and I do like having multiple figures of a character. Being realistically proportioned, their facial details are a bit soft. Rather unusually, they all come on 20mm diameter bases, which makes a change from the usual 25mm diameter bases. I knew Claire, Leon and Ada from the Resident Evil films but had never heard of Robert before. I had to check up his background on Wikipedia to find out who he was. The four work well as a team and I was delighted that all four survived my first play-through of the short campaign from the starter box.

Vampifans Views 114 - Monthly Musings 84

Welcome to my final Monthly Musings of 2018 and I have a lot to cover. I've just noticed that this will be my 100th post of 2018. Yay me! First up is another illustration of my beloved Vampirella by Spanish artist Sanjulian. It's not a bad portrait but he has done better. The bat behind her is really naff!

2018 seems to have flown over. It started very badly for me with my mother dying in January. She is sorely missed. But life goes on and despite this being the first Christmas I have ever spent on my own I was determined to make the best of it and to enjoy it as much as I could, which I did. In my first post of 2019 I'll show you what my brother bought for me for Christmas present and the items I added to it. It is impressive!

These past couple of weeks have been incredible for me as a gamer. I am a big fan of Kickstarters. I know some people hate them but for the most part I have had very positive experiences with them and I continue to back them. By nature, I am a very patient person, so a one year wait (or however long it takes) to receive my order is not a problem. I understand that games need time to be developed and that the manufacturing process can take quite some time. The reason I mention this is that I received two Kickstarter games I'd backed a good while ago these past two weeks.

First to arrive was the wave 1 delivery of Nemesis, a sci-fi horror game set on a space ship that has become infested with Alien-like creatures. This game grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it being announced. As soon as I received my copy I painted all of the figures that came with it - 6 humans and 20 Intruders. It can be played by 1 to 5 players and I played it for the first time on Christmas Day and I have to say it was one of the most tense gaming experiences of my life. Since then I have played it many more times. This game is just superb and easily one of the best board-games I've ever played! Mind you, it is not an easy game to win but that is a good thing in my opinion - I like a challenge. If you're a fan of the Aliens franchise, as I am, you'll love this game. I plan on showcasing the figures very early in 2019.

On the Saturday before Christmas, I received two big parcels. One was for the Here's Negan board-game, a stand alone supplement to Mantic Games' The Walking Dead games. This was not a Kickstarter, it was my main Christmas present that I bought for myself. Thanks to this year's Zomtober and Zomvember painting challenges I'm really back into The Walking Dead games and this was a perfect complement to what I already own. I primarily wanted this game for the six survivor miniatures, including a new version of Negan, shown in the photo above. The zombie figures are all duplicate poses of ones from the boxed starter set of The Walking Dead: All Out War, which was slightly disappointing but not the end of the world. I was uncertain what the game play would be like but I have played it once and found the game very challenging and a lot of fun. I'm now looking forward to playing the campaign mode of linked scenarios. Thankfully, this is another game that allows for solo players.

The second parcel I received that day was massive and very heavy. It contained all of the items I'd backed for the Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter board-game, and I think I ordered one of everything that was on offer. There were 11 separate boxes in the parcel! That is a heck of a lot of content. As a huge fan of zombie films and games there was no way that I wasn't going to buy this game. Although I am not a computer player and thus have not played any of the Resident Evil computer games, I do own all of the films and novels for this franchise and I'm a big fan of them all. I have only just finished reading the rulebook and I plan on trying it out this afternoon. Initial impressions are highly favourable and the figures look really great, with some of them being truly frightening - Birkin stage 5 and the giant alligator, for example. I can't wait to get them painted.

So, as you can imagine, I have had a great time playing games that I love, which is something I don't do enough of. I seem to spend far more time painting figures than in gaming with them. This Christmas, however, has been the opposite, with gaming taking precedence over painting. This doesn't mean that painting has stopped all together - it has just slowed down. Currently on my painting table are some more Strontium Dog figures by Warlord Games and some new Rumbleslam figures by TT Combat, as well as some really old Citadel sci-fi figures that I'm repainting for my The Ace of Spades Campaign on my WOIN blog.

2019 promises to be a good year for me. What I am most looking forward to the New Year is celebrating Vampirella's 50th anniversary. She first appeared in comics in 1969 and has been going strong ever since. I'm sure there are big plans to celebrate this milestone anniversary. What I would love to see but is unlikely to happen, is a big budget movie or a TV series for her.

I have more Kickstarters that I'm waiting for, the first of which should be the hard-backed rulebook of Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD plus some extras by EN Publishing. That is due sometime in January and will receive a lot of coverage on my WOIN blog. February will hopefully see the release of Core Space, a sci-fi skirmish game with miniatures and awesome scenery by Battle Systems Ltd. This is their first foray into gaming and it all looks to be a smash hit for them. There are at least five others that I'm waiting for but in the short term, these two that I've mentioned are the two I'm most excited about.

I want to do more batreps for both of my blogs. I really enjoy doing them but they are very time consuming to produce. I started 2018 well with the 12 part scenario, Alien Base, for my The Ace of Spades Campaign, which appeared on my WOIN blog, but there were very few further batreps after that. My two Six Gun Sound scenarios that I ran on this blog were a lot of fun and I very much want to post more Wild West and Weird West batreps. In August I ran an introductory scenario for the Strontium Dog skirmish game by Warlord Games. Again, I hope to run more of them in 2019. I can say that I do have plans to run a short St. Trinian's scenario using the N.O.W. rules on my WOIN blog very soon, once I finish showcasing the cast. Hopefully, it'll be the start of a long running campaign. After that I plan on returning to Kimberley and the crew of The Ace of Spades as they visit a pleasure planet and Kimberley enters a high stakes gambling contest. Actually, my WOIN blog should be filled with batreps because once I get the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook I'm going to want to start a new campaign based on it. Honestly, I have so many plans for stuff I want to do, it's just hard to find the time to do them all. Thank God, I'm retired and have so much free time to devote to this wonderful hobby.

I am looking forward to 2019 and I hope it lives up to my expectations. I am content with my life and that is a good thing to be able to say. I'd just like to end by first of all thanking all of you who follow my blog and who take the time out to comment on my posts. Your continued support spurs me on and encourages me to continue blogging for as long as I can. Secondly, I wish every one of you a peaceful and prosperous New Year filled with love and happiness. God bless you all!