Loot Markers

I have been looking forward to sharing these elements, for no other reason that I am chuffed to bits with them!  From very early on in the game's design considerations, I was keen to include some element of chance to the proceedings, this is not a new concept and is lifted directly from some of my more enjoyable gaming experiences such as Congo and Zombicide.  

I wanted players to interact with elements drawing what is in effect a chance card that could then have an impact on game play, be it positive or negative.  The cards themselves were considered a while a go, with my thought process laid out in the post, 'On the turn of a card'.  I was hoping that this element would bring some levity to the game, making it more about the experience than a strategic wargame.  

I knew that we could design a set of tokens to place in the game to represent these chance encounters and that their position could again influence decisions made, for example placed within range of the castle defenders would an attacking squad run the risk of interacting and winning a game changing panzerfäust or will they see their troops gunned down for a humble bratwurst?  Decisions, decisions.

Inspiration came from the great many examples of 'jumping off' points devised for games like Bolt Action and so having decided on 40mm MDF discs as a starting point, I began collecting together elements from left offer sprues and the bits box.  Most came together very quickly and are grouped in sets like the 'fuel dump' or food supplies, which were actually one piece resin casts from 'Bad Squiddo Games'.  The weapons caches were all based around some '4Ground' packing crates that I had kicking around and proved just the job to 'stage' the individual arms, the irony being that they are bought as pre-painted, but were then undercoated when I had everything assembled! 

I haven't really considered just how many of these stands would be available to players in the game, but given the size of the playing area I set myself the target of eighteen, for no better reason than that was how many bases I had to hand.  Initially the thought was that they would be generic to both sides, but as I started to mull the idea over I decided it might be fun to have certain markers that would be placed just in the castle and others available to the attackers and could therefore be themed accordingly.  This is where things started to get out of hand...

Discarded luggage, looted family heirlooms from the castle armoury or discarded Nazi documents all made it into the castle, I even headed the file paper with a German eagle!  Outside we can find a teddy bear's picnic on a hand painted rug and evidence of the revenge of a certain red cloak wearing heroine; anything was possible.  It was always my intention, if time permitting, to have some fun with these markers and this was definitely a situation were having the time just to tinker around has befitted the outcome.  My apologies for a rare moment of self congratulation, but I couldn't be happier with them and can't wait to see the markers take their place on the boards.

Click button for related posts