On the turn of a card.

I thought I would just share some of the concept work that has been done for what we are calling the 'Chance' cards.  Various loot markers will be situated throughout the terrain; these can be investigated by using the 'Oh, Shiny!' action.  The player will draw a chance card to see what they have found, but be warned some cards have negative effects!  

I had an idea that I wanted the deck to resemble an old and worn pack of playing cards, adding the logo that I had created at the centre.  Looking at it again, I can see some faults with alignment and have probably overdone the wear and tear, but got close to where I wanted to be.

Concept wise the cards in our game owe much to the 'Zombicide' game and so it seemed fitting to start there when it came to design.  For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with Guillotine Games' Kickstarter breaking phenomenon, Zombicide is a collaborative board game where the players 'search' for equipment by drawing cards.  These can give a survivor's chances a boost with the addition weapons or artefacts, sometimes having to be combined to increase the value or strength of the item.  The cards might also have an impact on game play, sometimes for the worse!  Above is a typical example of an equipment card and as I was reviewing them, I was suddenly struck by the black, red & white colour scheme, which echoes the German Imperial war flag design and had been a consideration when thinking about palette for this adventure.  As a result, I shamelessly stole payed homage to the card design and added our theme to their existing background.

I was aware of the box art for 'Escape from Colditz' board game and Action Man set and was channeling these themes, along with the Commando comics of my youth.  I was interested to discover that the 'Escape from Colditz' game also came with equipment cards and that theirs had historical information relating to the various escape attempts.  Again this was something we had considered and so will be looking to add facts about the battle to ours; after all our core goal is education. 

With a design concept in place, I thought it only right to try out a few ideas for actual cards.  I have had to learn a few new skills along the way, but quite excited at the results.  Obviously there is a need for consistency, particularly when applying fonts and filters, but these examples are done to show a variety of ideas for discussion rather than a finished article.   I imagined any historical information at the base of the card and the light colour on red, seems to work well, making us realise that this is relevant, but separate information from the game itself. 

 Another concern was how do we show that some elements can be combined?  A simple numerical solution perhaps?  There is a lot of information on this set of cards and I wonder if all is necessary?  As always, these are just my thoughts and any additional considerations about them or their development can only be helpful so please don't hold back. 

I have been considering the possibility of two separate decks, one for the attackers and one for the defenders, but it might be easier just to have the one that can be recycled when exhausted.  If that were to be the case then some of the cards may well be duplicates for example Ammunition, but at the same time it would be nice to have a good variety of items.  

The 'Chance' cards  could seriously change the outcome of the game for the individual player.  This uncertainty hopefully adds some fun to the proceedings and a random element to the game play that echoes the fog of war.  We already have a good number of cards worked up, but we could do with some more suggestions.  Below is a list of ideas that have not yet been completed, please feel free to add any suggestions as to how they might be used, or better still come up with some new ones for us.

In addition if anyone knows of a good source for having cards printed up, do please let us know, thank you.

F.U.B.A.R.
Binoculars
Maps
Lost!
Bazooka!
Sausage
Beef Jerky
Wine Bottles
Canned Food
Frying Pan
Chewing Gum
A lonely goat herd
Nuns on the Run!
The Hills are Alive
Bear Trap!

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Balian d’Ibelin

I think that it is fair to say that the day job has been a bit distracting of late.  This led to a lost week, hobby wise, and all manner of difficulties to overcome, both professionally and personally.  That said, there is an inevitability to the academic year and it is surprising just how much nonsense one is prepared to put up with when the prospect of a long summer holiday looms into focus!

 Unfortunately, the restraints on my time have meant that ‘Forgotten Heroes’ hasn’t worked out for me this year, instead I have picked at one or two pieces just to keep things ticking over and this post is a case I point.  Regular readers of ‘28mm Victorian Warfare’ may remember mention of the Crusades as a possible avenue of interest.  Not much has happened on that front, if truth be told, but when I saw another of ‘Wargames Illustrated’ Giants in Miniature series, Balian d’Ibelin, I felt that it was a good a starting point as any other.

 As a huge Ridley Scott fan, I had high hopes for Kingdom of Heaven and, in parts, it has much to commend it, but sadly Orlando Bloom isn’t one of them.  Outstanding as the incorruptible, inflexible (dare one say wooden?) elf, Legolas, in Lord of the Rings, I just didn’t buy Mr. Bloom as the Crusader Noble, Balian d’Ibelin.

The acting aside, the liberal retelling of history made, in my humble opinion, for a slightly confused and easily forgettable piece of celluloid.  Watching it reminded me of young Master Awdry’s penchant for picking the best pieces out of an otherwise stodgy and unpalatable offering from the school refectory – a time consuming and futile process that ultimately left you wanting more.

My apologies, I digress!  As a sculpt this is another winner from ‘Wargames Illustrated’ and I was happy to give mine the Hollywood treatment when it came to painting it.  I was enjoying the simplicity of the miniature, but then came the heraldic devices on his surcoat and I was instantly reminded as to why I may have dodged this period! 

Still I persevered, not least because I hoped to use Balian as a proxy model for Benson, a special promotional character in my Zombicide: Black plague games.  Roll on the summer holidays! 

Dead Funny

 Zomtober 2017 - post #2

Now I would like to tell you that I am getting back into the swing of things and that normal service is once again resumed here at '28mm Victorian Warfare', but having seen the list of things to do and the fact that we are back to the grindstone after the weekend, I am reluctant to make any promises that might prove difficult to keep.

That said, I delighted to add another shambling sack of sorrow to the undead horde, this time in the shape of a Jester.  This is a plastic Notorious Plagued Character form the Zombicide: Black Plague game.  Given that these are just simple plastic miniatures, I am always impressed at just how well they paint up.  Just enough detail to hold your attention, but not too much to put you off starting in the first place.  Rather unimaginatively, I have simply copied the game's box art, but added lashings of gore to the piece to give him some more undead character.  

Back in April Messrs. Feb and Templar were invited round to Awdry Towers for a day of Zombicide: Black Plague, but with a twist!  The twist was that I wanted to use my recently painted 'Studio Miniatures' Grail Knights, along with Tim the Enchanter, for a Monty Python themed day of gaming.  Given that none of us had prepared any sort of strategy for the characters in question much hilarity ensued with the inevitable phrase 'run away!' heard at every possible juncture.

Both gentlemen have posted their thoughts of the day on the splendid weblogs, Bull's is here, whilst Mike's account of the day can be found here.  Sadly, and once again, I seem to have conspired to produce absolutely no evidence whatsoever of the day, the not so brave Knights' adventures  seemingly becoming the stuff of myth and legend.  Fortunately for me, I was able to steal a couple of photographs form the chaps' accounts, reproduced here by kind permission, and in a bid to honour that fateful day I resurrected the Knights and introduced them to Jester - 

                                                                             Run Away!

                                                                Run Away!

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if a job's worth Dylan!

Zomtober 2016 - post#4

It's been another one of those weeks at work and there is now a real sense that winter is drawing in with shorter days and a noticeable drop in the temperature.*  So as the nights draw in and thoughts start to turn to 'The Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' there is still the small matter of completing 'Zomtober 2016'.  To that end allow me to present my latest offerings who are, one in the same, Dylan the Handywoman.  

*Thank you to all my Antipodean Blogging friends that have been posting pictures of BBQs and even parrots in the garden!

Dylan is a Zombicide, Paolo Parente, Special Guest Expansion Pack and comes in both Survivor and Zombivor, a zombified survivor, variants.  This was another one of those 'moment of weakness' purchases and has been idly gathering dust since the pledge arrived.  It was a fun exercise trying to keep a sense that these two were, in fact, the same person and in the end it was just a simple matter of painting each corresponding area using the same colours across the two miniatures.  As with all Zombicide characters, Dylan comes with a back story and hers, lifted directly from the 'Guillotine Games' official site, reads as follows:

“Measure twice, cut once!”

Dylan was working as the on-stage assistant for a popular home improvement show sponsored by a major power-tool company. Mainly on the set for eye-candy, she was, in fact, handier than both the star and his bearded assistant. When the zombie apocalypse hit, she was on stage, watching the star do his usual grunting comedy routine while trying to keep him from losing a finger by mishandling a circular saw. By the end of the first day of zombie apocalypse, she discovered fighting off coworkers’ grabby-hands with power-tools had been perfect training for battling against groping undead hordes. Now she roams the streets using her construction skills to help other survivors. She is still always thrilled to meet a fan, provided they keep their hands to themselves!

Taking inspiration for the colour palette from the original character cards all was progressing nicely until it came to the checked shirt, which I'm afraid I bottled; the eyes and the unsteady hands were just not up to the job on this occasion.

The Zombivor version is just ridiculously good fun and in this putrid state, Dylan has ditched her cordless drill for something a whole lot more industrial!  Once again favouring the decaying green skin option the pair were completed with a little addition to the bases to give that 'oh so apocalyptic' feel.  

So two more additions to the good and with half term, thankfully, looming into sight we are hopeful that we might safely negotiate to end of another themed month.  More zombies next week and then a couple of survivors to see out the challenge.

Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious b@st@rds?

Zomtober 2016 - post#3

With two zombies to the good already, I thought it was time to even up the sides with a couple of survivors. Memphis & Ohio, from ‘Studio Miniatures’ would surely make wonderful proxies for Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson and Columbus, Jesse Eisenberg, both from the hugely enjoyable Zombieland. I have touched on this little gem of zombie movie in a previous post, 'So do you have any regrets?' and so it was inevitable that these two characters would eventually see the brush.

Both perfectly serviceable sculpts, although the shotgun toting Ohio feels a little awkward in his stance, which I suppose does reflect his film version's character.  The dual Uzi wielding Memphis is much more substantial miniature and when it came to painting, I simply referenced the film for the colour palette, although felt that Tallahassee's snakeskin jacket was a little beyond my abilities.   

Whilst preparing and painting these two it was inevitable that my mind would wonder to their respective scenes in the film and for some reason I became fixated with Tallahassee's search for Twinkies.  Now I was familiar with this particular brand of American confectionary from other celluloid outings, Die Hard and Ghostbusters to name but two, but had never tried one myself - so began my own search for the last Twinkie!  As luck would have it, I didn't need to battle the legions of undead as a very nice man dropped of a box with our next grocery delivery - God bless online supermarket shopping!

Now I have to tell you that these are strangely addictive, in a ghastly sort of way; cloying sponge cake filled with a synthetic cream, what's not to like?  So before the last Twinkie vanished from 'Awdry Towers' I managed to gather together my other 'not' Zombieland characters for a quick photoshoot, not that I needed an excuse to get the toys out! 

Looking for Love in Alderaan Places.

Zomtober 2016 - post#2

'Zomtober 2016' is off to a flying start with some wonderful examples already posted across the many splendid blogs of my fellow contributors.  Having progressed a little further along with my first post that I thought I would last weekend, I am now in the fortunate position of being able to submit a sneaky midweek post - how I spoil you!  This, then, is a Zombicide Kickstarter exclusive V.I.P.*,  a Princess Leia cosplayer.  

*Very Infected Person

Being somewhat of a Star Wars geek devotee, this cracking little plastic miniature got bumped up the painting queue, but was a little more challenging than I had initially thought.  Although the plastic was reassuringly firm, not too flexible, some of the detail seemed to be lost around the face.  I couldn’t decide if this was intentional, as a wound, or just poor casting?  In the end, some liberally applied gore helped to cover my uncertainty and the final result was pretty close to what I had hoped for.

With the Princess slowly shuffling off the table, chain clanking as she goes, I am hopeful that I will have a couple of survivors, again inspired by the silver screen, to join the fray at the weekend.  Until then I just had to share this image by Joe Wight from the 'Graphic Lab'; not only a fabulous Return of the Jedi pun, but a timely reminder that The Walking Dead will return to our television screens on the 24th October here in the United Kingdom - Oh Lucille, what have you done? 

Zombicide Black Plague - Genevieve

With the start of the new academic year looming into view, and its subsequent curtailing of hobby time, I was desperate to complete one more Zombicide Black Plague survivor.  When Messrs. Templar and Feb visited Awdry Towers earlier in the month we stumbled across a hugely effective combination of survivors.  Both Gentlemen have documented their thoughts and reasons behind their choices and I was determined to honour those chosen few by promoting them up the painting queue.  

Genevieve is the last of the team and was brought to the table by 'Bullcher Feb' who quite rightly identified that her starting skill of +1 Damage: Ranged meant that she was able to give out a lot of punishment from the start of the game without necessarily closing with the enemy, vital for taking down larger adversaries or covering any retreat.  

A compatriot of Klom form the Paul Bonner special guest box, Genevieve is another cracking little sculpt.  With her fearsome looking crossbow and heavily padded gambeson she looks ready to take on the shambling horde.  Her official fluff reads as follows: Genevieve is taking absolutely no guff from anyone. When the zombies attacked her home in the dead of night, she held them off while still in her nightclothes. Now that she’s in her armor and well-armed, it’s going to take a siege engine to stop her. Genevieve is a crack shot with her crossbow. She can take down a man, a boar, or a zombie from fifty yards. If they manage to get too close to shoot, she has been known to take a head clear off with her machete. Genevieve is in this war to win it.

So Genevieve completes my group and survivors and the goal is now to work through the scenarios in the core box before moving on to the Wulfsburg expansion and benefitting from all manner of additional weaponry.  All is going reasonably well, but a couple of games have had to be re-run as my enthusiasm for progress often places survivors in unnecessary danger.  This coupled with my re-reading of a couple of rules, most notably the extra activation awarded to a certain type of zombie if none are available to add to the board, has seen unfortunate fatalities in the dying throes of the game. Still Zombicide Black Blague continues to prove a most welcome diversion and it has been wonderful to actually play a couple of games with painted miniatures finally. 

Oh, you turnip, Adso.

Now it might just be me*, but Brother James, my latest Zombicide Black Plague survivor, seems to bare an uncanny resemblance to a certain Scotsman's portrayal of Friar William of Baskerville in Jean-Jacques Annard's The Name of the Rose.

This was another one of those films that had a lasting impact on the 'oh so serious' young Master Awdry, but it wasn't until much later on that I managed to tackle the splendid book, of the same name, by Umberto Eco.  Whilst an incredibly worthy piece of literature, brimming with biblical analysis and semiotics we will be referring to the celluloid interpretation for the purposes of this post.

*Although somehow I doubt it.

For those who have yet to experience this little gem, The Name of the Rose, is a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, stick with me, it's better than it sounds.  Sean Connery wonderfully hams up the role of William of Baskerville**, the mentor to a young Christian Slater's Adso.

The pair set about unraveling the clues in order to explain the mysterious death of a talented manuscript illuminator.  As the death toll rises the Abbot is forced to employ the services of the, quite brilliant,  F. Murray Abraham as Bernardo Gui of the Spanish Inquisition.  Twist and turns abound, with ancient Greek texts, labyrinthine secret libraries and of course the delectable Valentina Vargas as the 'Rose' - what more could an impressionable sixteen year old wish for?

**Love or loathe him, the man has genuine screen presence. 

To this day it still looks good, with some great performances, but I have a feeling that it was not quite the epic piece of work the director had hoped for.  Umberto Eco himself damned the production with faint praise, referring to it as, "a nice movie".***  For me, however, it was pure escapism and one of those films that I am more than happy to revisit when given the opportunity.

***"A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese, lettuce. And the movie is obliged to choose only the lettuce or the cheese, eliminating everything else – the theological side, the political side.  It's a nice movie" - The Guardian 2011

Returning to point of the post, Brother James/William has been selected for his starting skill of Search, allowing him to draw an extra card when searching.  Combine this with his ability to hold a torch in his armour slot and our benevolent Brother will provide the team with three equipment cards every turn - just what every beleaguered survivor wants to hear!  When it came to painting, I was inspired by my good friend, Stefan's interpretation which is well worth a look here.  He has done a stunning job on James' face, remarkable work.  

William of Baskerville: But what is so alarming about laughter?
Jorge de Burgos: Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith, because without fear of the Devil there is no more need of God.

 

STAND BACK! Be silent! Be still!

John Boorman's 1981 epic, Excalibur left quite an impression on young master Awdry.  Whilst familiar with the Arthurian legend, albeit in the sanitised form that was freely available to schoolchildren at the time, nothing had prepared me for this this dark, often harrowing, interpretation based of the 15th century, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory.  The was a visually stunning piece of work, but I remember being as confused as I was amazed, not least because they used the Old Spice theme tune to ride into battle!*

*Carl Orff's O Fortuna

With a formidable cast of British and Irish talent a stand out turn has to be that of Nicol Williamson as Merlin.  Mesmerised by the metallic skull cap, Williamson's Merlin steals every scene he is in, his comedic timing combined with a genuine screen presence giving the role true gravitas.  Perhaps not surprising then that a Merlinesque miniature would appear as part of the Zombicide Black Plague Kickstarter.  

Morgan, to give him his correct Zombicide name, was one of the randomly selected miniatures that the 'Dark Templar' fielded on his recent excursion to 'Awdry Towers', but what a revelation he soon became.  Armed with dual magic spells, Mike was rolling in excess of six dice at one point with devastating effects on the undead hoard.  With the ability to hold a third, longer ranged spell in the armour slot, Morgan was fast becoming an indispensable addition to the team.  

His official Zombicide blurb reads as follows, The third son of a knight, Morgan was always too poor to be a knight, too strong to be a scholar, and too smart to be a thug. What magic he could find was second-hand stuff, gleaned from sneaking into old castles and stealing from necromancers. He knows enough magic to get by, but in a pinch, his staff is a wonderful mace and his dagger will slow down even a zombie. Morgan always dreamed of advising a king. Now his best bet may be saving one’s life.

So, again in homage to his efforts on the board, Morgan/Merlin becomes the latest addition to the team and seeing how effective he was when loaded with spells, I am hopeful that he will continue to perform this roll when deployed in similar missions.  

"Look into the eyes of the dragon and despair!"

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