Strontium Dog - Build a Mutie Set 01

The Great Atom War of 2150 decimated Britain's population and saw a massive increase in mutant births due to the fallout of the radioactive isotope, Strontium 90. Mutants are vilified, shunned and segregated into mutant ghettoes, away from decent normal folk.

Mutations can range from the mundane to the extreme and this set allows you to build your own mutant miniatures - either to use as S/D Agents or as downtrodden muties railing against the draconian laws passed by the Norms. A variety of arms, legs, torsos, heads and weapons allow you to build five mutant models in a myriad of different configurations.

This set contains, five sets of legs, five sets of torsos, ten heads and over ten right and left arms mostly with weapons. They are all fully interchangeable, giving you a near infinite variety of combinations. I have based my figures on those shown on the back of the boxed set and the Warlord Games webstore. In addition, you get three Armoury cards (Anti-grav Chute, Medipack and Frag Bomb) and two Chicanery cards (Angry Mob and Sneak Attack). This boxed set costs £20.00

The Walking Dead Corpses

When I placed my last order with Mantic Games for the Here's Negan board-game, I also ordered a set of The Walking Dead Corpses. This set comprises of six figures - 4 zombie corpses, 1 human corpse and a dying human. All are sculpted on 25mm diameter bases and are made of resin. The detail on them is very good.

At the back is the kneeling human. I painted him with his eyes closed. He would make a good hostage. To his left is the dead human. She hasn't turned yet and bears no obvious wounds. I painted her with a very pale flesh for her skin to show she is still human. The four zombies at the bottom of the photo are very obviously undead. They all have multiple wounds and their faces look very gaunt and emaciated. All of the figures have been cleverly sculpted to fit on their bases with their legs bent.
This is not an essential purchase as they serve no purpose in the game. However, for me, in any zombie apocalypse game, corpses are an essential part of the scenery. Like zombies, you can never have too many corpses, in my opinion. This set costs £14.99 from the Mantic Games webstore, so they're not cheap by any means. Although sold as a The Walking Dead accessory set, they could be used in any zombie apocalypse game.

Nemesis Intruders 01

As promised in my last post, I'm showcasing the Intruders that appear in the Nemesis board-game. As in the Aliens films, the Intruders mutate, becoming larger and more dangerous as time passes. I present them from smallest and weakest to the largest and most deadly.

Hatching from eggs laid by the Queen are the Intruder Larva. There are three Larva on each base. These are very easy to kill - one shot is all it takes to kill them. Rolling the combat dice you have a 5 in 6 chance of wounding them. However, they can infect a crew member and that is not a good thing, although surgery can remove them. You get six of these figures in the game.

Next up are the Intruder Creepers. These are much tougher opposition and can have anywhere from two to six wounds, depending upon which card is drawn when you score a hit on them.Rolling the combat dice you have a 4 in 6 chance of wounding them.

You get three of these figures in the game. They rarely make an appearance but when they do they can prove a deadly threat.

By far the most numerous of the Intruders are the Adults. These are the Intruders that the crew members are most likely to encounter. Once again, they can have two to six wounds depending upon which card is drawn when they are injured. Each time you injure an Intruder you draw a card to determine how many wounds it has so it can vary in a single turn if you injure it multiple times. Rolling the combat dice you have a 3 in 6 chance of wounding them.

There are four versions of the adults and you get two of each version, giving a total of eight Adults. The two standing Intruders have bits of debris sculpted on their bases with pieces fixed to their legs and hands to add strength to their sculpts, otherwise they might snap at their ankles. It is a wise decision that the sculptors made.

These are three Intruders you least want to encounter. Two Breeders stand on either side of the mighty Queen. When you injure one of these figures you draw two cards to determine how many wounds it has. This gives them a range of four to twelve wounds depending upon which cards are drawn. For both of them you only have a 2 in 6 chance of wounding them on the combat dice.

In one game I played all of my crew had completed their missions and had gathered in the Hibernatorium at the end of the game to enter their hibernation chambers when I drew an Intruder token from the bag and it was the Queen. It could not have appeared at a worse time. The crew did not defeat it but did force it to retreat, which was lucky. They all suffered wounds and were lucky no one died. You get two Breeders and one Queen in the game. It is very rare that they appear but when they do it is brown pants time!

To give you some idea of just how big the Intruders in this photo are I have placed one of each of their types against all six crew members. They really are a frightening sight and their sculpts are just incredible. The detail on the Queen's base is amazing, with Larva emerging from openings in the floor. I also like how she is holding a Larva in her left hand. In real life she would probably be over 20 feet tall!
The Queen was the first figure I painted out of this set and I decided against painting them all black, which seems the most obvious choice for them. I liked the idea of giving them a metallic sheen, so painted them with a base of Foundry Black Shade 34A then dry-brushed them with two coats of metallic blue with the second being lighter than the first. I was very happy with the results so I quickly painted the rest of the Intruders. I have to say, they were some of the easiest figures I've had to paint.
I really love these figures. I'm thinking that they would fit in perfectly with the N.E.W. supplement Xenomorphs: the Fall of Somerset Landing. They would be great figures to represent the various types of Xenomorphs, who look very similar to these Intruders.

Nemesis Crew 01

Nemesis is a game that I received shortly before Christmas. I played it for the first time on Christmas day and became addicted to it. I have been playing it just about every day since then. So, in this post and the next I want to show you the figures that come with the game, starting with the six crew members.

At the far left is the Captain. He starts the game armed with a Six Shooter Pistol which has 6 shots. It is a classic weapon and can only be reloaded with the Reload Action card. When you roll double damage you deal 1 additional injury. He is a good all-rounder.
Next up is the Mechanic. He starts the game armed with a Sawed Off Shotgun, which only has 2 shots. Rolls of 1 damage are treated as double damage. He is the guy who is best suited to repairing stuff.

At the far right is the Pilot. She starts the game armed with a Shotgun which also has 2 shots. Every time you deal at least 1 injury you deal 1 additional injury. She is the person you most want to get to the ship's cockpit, where her skills prove most useful.

Moving on is the wheelchair bound Scientist. He starts the game armed with a Pistol, which has 3 shots. Unfortunately, rolls of double damage are treated as single damage, so that's not good. Obviously, science skills are his forte. He is not good in combat.
The female Scout is next in line. She starts the game with a Rifle, which holds 4 shots. It has no special rules. She is excellent at exploring the ship and can check out rooms without entering them or move silently.

Last up is the Soldier. He starts the game armed with an Assault Rifle, which has 5 shots. Each time he deals at least 1 injury he deals an additional injury. Obviously, he is the character best suited to fighting the Intruders.
The figures are nicely sculpted with realistic proportions. However, the facial detail on them is poor. All of the figures have textured bases, which is a nice touch. The game is designed to be played by 1 to 5 players so you can't field all six characters. When I've been playing, the most I've taken has been four. However, I usually play with three characters. My win ratio is good but every game is so tense and unpredictable. Victory is never a certainty. The Intruders are truly frightening and I'll show you them in my next post.

Schleich Watering Hole

My brother is a very generous person and he bought me a very impressive 2018 Christmas present. He asked me what I'd like and I replied anything from my Amazon wish list. He then asked me to choose the one item I'd most want and I had no hesitation in nominating the Schleich Watering Hole set. I'd already bought two Schleich River sections and the Waterfall set, all of which were compatible with one another. Schleich are a German firm who specialise in highly detailed large scale animals, dinosaurs and fantasy creatures. I have some of their dinosaurs and I'm very impressed with them.

Here are all of my sets including my small Scorpion's Nest. Note how the river seamlessly fits in with the waterfall and watering hole sets. I should mention that these sets are not sold as 28mm scale scenery pieces but they fit in perfectly with figures of that scale. I've included my Copplestone Castings figure of Vampifan in many of the photos to give you a sense of scale. The main reason that I wanted these sets was to use them in my Wild West games plus others like, for example, the Cursed Earth from Judge Dredd.

For the rocky outcrop of the waterfall, I gave it a Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash then dry-brushed it with Foundry Arctic Grey Shade 33A and Foundry Base Sand Light 10C. The waterfall was heavily dry-brushed with Foundry Arctic Grey Light 33C (White). For the sandy base I gave it a Citadel Seraphim Sepia wash followed by a dry-brushing with Foundry Base Sand Light 10C. Note that there is a cave hidden behind the waterfall, which is useful for hiding in.

Vampifan has climbed to the top of the rocky outcrop. I'm glad I took the time to paint my scenery items as it makes them look much more realistic. The sculpting of this set is most impressive

The two river sections were the first items that I bought from this range because I always wanted a river section to use in my games. A major criticism I have of many commercial or scratch-built rivers is that the water does not look very realistic. In the old days I just used blue mounting board to represent my river sections. They worked but were hardly realistic. One look at the Schleich River section and I was immediately taken at just how realistic the water looked. What they have done is use a piece of coloured paper for the river bed and fixed a piece of clear perspex on top of it, which is textured with the ripples of the river.

A very small item I bought was the Scorpion's Nest. It comes with one plastic scorpion. My second scorpion came with the Watering Hole set. Using the scorpions with 28mm scale figures places them in the giant mutant category - ideal for a Cursed Earth or Weird West setting.

The Watering Hole set has a large footprint and is very cleverly designed with a cool surprise, which I'll reveal below. It came with about half a dozen animals you'd find if on a safari but they are all massive and totally unusable for 28mm scale gaming. That didn't bother me at all as I wanted this set for the scenery not the animals.

That said, the scorpion and the giant centipede shown above emerging from a cave, are very useful as mutated insects. Just look how the light is reflected on the water in a very realistic manner.

There is a small island in the centre of the watering hole. How do you reach the island if you can't swim? The tree splits in half to form two bridges. Perhaps it got struck by a bolt of lightning which rent it in half. What a cool surprise!

The large rocky outcrop shown above forms another cave which is big enough to stand a 28mm scale figure inside.

Yet again, just look at how realistic the water effects are. I am mightily impressed with these sets. I'm already thinking up scenarios based around the watering hole for a few of my games.
The river section costs £11.99, the waterfall costs £17.98 and the watering hole currently costs £58.00 but when my brother bought it, it only cost £39.99. I'm not sure why it has had such a massive price hike. The scorpion nest cost £3.99 but is currently unavailable on Amazon UK.