Monday, August 17, 2015

Song of Tomorrow grows

The rules for Song of Tomorrow are slowly growing.  I'm attempting to make them as complete as I can, with an optional background story and factions and army rosters and whatever I feel like throwing in it.  To help with the playtesting of the weapons and new traits I have expanded my meager collection of sci-fi miniatures and terrain.  Now I just need to get more painting done....
First up is the Enforcers Faction Starter box from Mantic Games' Deadzone.  There are 10 Enforcers (1 Leader, 2 assault troops, 1 rocket launcher, 1 heavy weapon, 1 engineer, 1 sniper, and 3 troopers) and 2 gun drones/turrets. 

Next up is the Haqqislam Starter box and Hephaestus Scenery Pack from Corvus Belli's Infinity.  The Haqqislam Starter has 1 Leader, 1 sniper, 1 special weapon, and 3 troopers.  The scenery pack came with a battle mat, 4 buildings, and 6 container boxes.

Mantic's Enforcers were made of a hard plastic.  The models were nicely detailed, though they had lots of flash.  Assembly was not too bad, except for attaching the two arms and gun to the troopers.  Great quality for the price.

I'm a big fan of the Infinity models; the details and artistic style is fantastic.  Then I had to assemble them.  While I really appreciate the amount of detail each one has and the character put into each model, I would have been happier if there were less pieces needed to be put together.  The supporting arms for weapons were really fiddly to deal with.  Still, the quality is phenomenal, if a bit pricey.

Here is the scenery pack laid out, along with the Enforcers and Haqqislam guys.  It makes a decent size battle area and will help with playtesting Song of Tomorrow.  It will let me make higher terrain features, choke-points, fire lanes, cover, Overwatch scenarios, etc.

The assembly was super quick and easy.  Its all light-weight cardboard boxes (like cereal boxes), with nice futuristic imagery.  The battle-mat (glossy poster) helps to enhance the futuristic look.  The quality for the price, even if just cardboard and a poster, is a great deal for small skirmish games like I have in mind.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Song of Tomorrow

On the backburner in my growing hobby interests is a sci-fi variant of SoBH.  I know Flying Lead and Mutants & Death Ray Guns is already out there, and that Andrea Sfiligoi is working on Harder Than Steel.  I want the basic SoBH (well the upcoming Advanced SoBH) rules, with some sci-fi weaponry.  Flying Lead went a little too complex in my opinion, and MDRG isn't quite what I had in mind, and Harder Than Steel (when it comes out) uses d10s while I would like to stick with the good ol' d6.  Just my personal tastes.

I've been inspired by the game Infinity by Corvus Belli and Tomorrow's War by Ambush Alley.  I want to get more sci-fi elements involved; like hacking, drones, etc.

But first, miniatures.  I have acquired the game Sedition Wars, by Studio McVey.  It was very inexpensive, which is great since the reviews on the game itself were not so stellar.  The miniatures, however, were nicely detailed and you get a decent amount.  I was more interested in the Vanguard units, but the Strain units will suffice as target practice (representing the Flood from Halo, or the Plague from Deadzone, etc.)

Here are some paper Infinity containers, with a paper building/walls I found somewhere on the net.  This is just a handful of the Vanguard minis from Sedition Wars.

Nice sniper model, with a tank drone, engineer, and heavy weapon specialist.

There is the leader, she has a pistol and sword.  

Bunch of troopers.
Next on the agenda I would like to get some of the Ariadna troops from Corvus Belli, some Enforcers from Mantic's Deadzone, and the scenery packs from Infinity.  It won't be a whole lot of options, but its a start.

At least I can start writing down stats for all these Vanguard.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Fightin' Fungi progress report - 8/4/15

I've slowly been working on the Fightin' Fungi miniatures, along with some terrain.  All of this is still very much a work-in-progress but I just wanted to show how far along things have come.

This is the Wizard's Tower, along with a Fungi Spellcaster.  For game purposes, I wanted to have a random teleport mechanic to enable characters to teleport across the map.  I have another terrain feature with a teleport platform.  As for creation; foam for the base, cardboard tube for tower, hot glue for spirals, and flocking.  Minimal painting so far.

This is to be a simple Watch Tower, with crenellated top for archers and some broken walls for cover around the tower.  Creation; cardboard tube, cardboard bits/base, son's plastic toy walls, sand, and rough painting.

Here we have a couple Fungi Archers and the Enoki Ranger.

The multi-option Fungus Infantry (going to convert into a Leader) is in charge of this Fungus Axeman, Oaken Spear, and a Slinger.  I think I might make the multi-option Fungus Infantry a cape to give him a more Leader-like quality.

Here is the Teleport Platform terrain piece, along with some of the more unsavory looking Fungus people, most likely from the Rotten Hearts faction.  

A Flying Eye Fungus, a Master of Mushrooms, and an Enoki Cleric look menacing enough.

The hungry looking Swamp Lion Fungus.

A forest terrain piece, defended by some friends of the woods.  The Mykityad Forest Nymph to the far left, Fungus Queen protected by a Matanagar bodyguard, and the Amazon Fungi.

The Fungus King is in strange company; with a Spore Monster Heavy Infantry to his right, a Puff Ball Launcher Spore Monster (with little Puff Ball) and a baby Sporeling. 

The truly terrifying Swamp Fungus has a friend in the Vampire Fungus.  

A couple more forest terrain pieces along with my cavalry.  I'm still waiting on a rider for another Worm Cavalry and a halfling-rider for another pig.

The Pillbug Heavy Cavalry and a Worm Rider.  I wish I had cavalry bases, but I'm not a big stickler on bases anyways.  These will work just fine.

And here are my two Grasshopper Cavalry, and Andrea Underfoot/Davey Snoutbottom.