Benvenuti a Venezia!

So this happened...

As mentioned in my last post, my normally steely resolve has slipped and I've bought into a new game system: Carnevale by TTCombat.

I bought the bigger of the two starter boxes, which came rammed with rulebooks, counters, dice, two gangs, reversible tiles to represent canals, a bunch of cardboard terrain and even a freakin' gondola!

I also bought some resin bases, along with four mdf bridges because the 2D cardboard ones look weird.

This is the first of three 'stretto' which I bought along with a more fancy 'Ringhiera' bridge. I've only painted one so far as that's all that's needed for early scenarios, and I also wanted to get on with painting the miniatures.

I've not painted MDF for a while, so it took a bit of time puzzling out how I was going to approach it. I've gone for a brighter, more cartoon style (outlining the paving slabs) as that seems to be where I'm at my most comfortable these days, as opposed to dark and grimy.

I'm actually quite happy with the almost patchwork design I went for on the slabs. So much so that in my head this shall be forever know as St Elmer's Bridge.

I'll go for a slightly different design for each Stretto bridge to prevent things being too uniform.

In the spirit of making some progress, I started with the slaves from the Rashaar gang, poor beaten and brainwashed folk who will willingly submit to all kinds of horrors (let's not dwell on that). In game this means they will feed themselves to fish monsters as a sort of mobile medi-kit.

Although the painting was fairly easy, I've discovered that TTCombat miniatures, despite being somewhat cool, take a fair bit of prep. Cleaning up resin is fairly easy, although I always find I miss a bit, but I also came across a bit of a mold release issue, despite washing them in warm soapy water. 

However, my traumatic experiences with War World Scenics terrain has taught me that a spray coat of matt varnish can work wonders to help tackle this issue. 

In terms of painting, I've kept these models fairly simple, as there's not much to do in terms of decision making. I've gone with Rashaar themed bright green rags and avoided adding any gore to wounds. What they represent in game (and the real world) is, when you stop to think about it, pretty awful (to be fair, the setting is fantasy horror). Also, some of the design choices were already a touch problematic for my usual tastes, therefore I personally felt more comfortable avoiding too much gritty realism.

Finally, whilst I was waiting for my package to arrive, I set about cobbling together a small piece of terrain to add a bit of ornamentation to my version of Venice.

The Jason (of Argonauts fame) miniature was a Salute promo miniature from some years back which I'd been planning to turn into a statue at some point anyway.

Admittedly, that is a just a cotton reel he's stood on, but to my eyes, it works well enough and it kept me occupied for the interminable couple of days (first world problems) I had to wait.

Unfortunately, this purchase has propelled me back into breaking even territory, however, I'm fairly well motivated to get my Carnevale miniatures painted and played with fairly quickly, so I'm not overly worried about the numbers right now.

Acquired: 48

Painted: 49

Carnevale: Masquerading Miniatures

With so many miniatures games to choose from, it's always good to be able to try before you buy. Therefore, I appreciate the fact that TTCombat make the basic rules of Carnevale available so that potential customers such as myself can make an informed decision.

A quick rummage through the miniature collection and a little bit of delving into the backlog threw up two small 50 ducat gangs of Rashaar and Strigoi to throw down and see if this was a game I wanted to invest in for more than just the pretty miniatures.

Having read the rules, watched some videos and printed out some stat cards, I was ready to give the game a try. Wes kindly agreed to join me in my venture and I delved into my terrain to create setting as close to Venice as I could manage.

It's a little more backwoods bayou than the Queen of the Adriatic, but it has the key element that seemed necessary: a 'canal' complete with a bridge; some buildings to climb and leap from; and plenty of smaller obstacles to bounce around on.

I also put a single objective in the centre of the board to force us both to fight for it. The side which controlled the objective at the end of five rounds would be the winner.

In this case it seemed appropriate to place a damsel in distress who eas doomed to either be sacrificed to sea monsters or end up as an aperitif at a Vampire banquet.

The Rashaar are a race of fishmen and their tame cultists who draw more than a little inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  My small force consisted of (from left to right):

Lesser Ugdru (Henchman) - 16 Ducats

Slave (Henchman) - 7 Ducats

Demagogue (Hero) - 15 Ducats

Cult Officiant (Henchman) - 12 Ducats

They were likely to be tough in combat but slow when out of the water, with the Slave there to make up the numbers.

Meanwhile, the Strigoi are vampires of varying types. The official miniatures pay homage to the many movie versions of this classic monster. The scratched together force Wes would be controlling was (from left to right):

Nosferatu (Henchman) - 13 Ducats

2 Starved Dhampires (Henchmen) - 18 Ducats

Highborn Servant (Hero) - 14 Ducats

Poison (Equipment) - 5 Ducats

This force seemed to be quivk and aggressive glass cannons who would get stronger as the fight went on.

Turn 1

The game began with the Cult Officiant immediately exploring the jumping rules as she bounded across the canal, on to some barrels and then leapt down (poorly) to a position behind the house.

She was followed by the Demagogue and flanked by the Lesser Ugdru, who kept yo the waterways. The Slave brought up the rear.

In return the Strigoi also leapt across the canal with varying degrees of success and some of them ending up wet. The Highborn Servant maintained her dignity by heading for the bridge.

Turn 2

The second turn saw the Slave advancing recklessly and unintentionally drawing the fire of the Highborn Servant away from more valuable targets.

The shots did not totally hit their mark and the Skave took only a little damage.

Seeing an opportunity when one of the Starved Dhampires advanced too far, the Demagogue clambered up on to a roof...

...and leapt down into combat, injuring the famished creature.

However, this left the Demagogue exposed to a vicious charge from the second Dhampire, which had been flung forwards by the Nosferatu's clever use of its command ability, Shadow Walker, each blow causing the Dhampire to grow stronger.

Turn 3

The Strigoi seized the initiative as the enhanced Dhampire continued its relentless assault on the Demagogue leaving her on just one wound.

Realising her wnd was near, the Demagogue burned all her command points and will points to  not only cut down the weaker Dhampire, but also enhance the Ugdru and Officiant.

She was in turn cut down by the remaining Dhampire, who continued to grow stronger, when we realised, too late, that the Nosferatu could use its last command point to trigger an out if sequence activation.

Realising that the Dhampire was a growing threat, and imbued by the Demagogue's martyrdom, the Officiant and Ugdru leapt in and tore the Starved Dhampire limb from limb in revenge.

Meanwhile, a frustrated Highborn leapt into combat with the Slave.

Although she only inflicted minimal damage, the Highborn Servant's poisoned blade left the Slave stunned.

We're not sure if we played the Poison correctly as the equipment rules are not in the free download.

Faced with overwhelming odds, the Nosferatu opted for an ostentatious move, clambering up onto a roof before diving down onto the Ugdru to inflict 3 points of damage and burning a number of life points in the process.

The Slave slipped away from the Highborn Servant, taking damage as she went, but diving into the embrace of the water, hoping to be of service to the injured Ugdru.

Turn 4

The Strigoi once again took the initiative and the dextrous Nosferatu slipped out of the clutches of the Ugdru and leapt to the safety of a nearby chimney.

Left without an target the Lesser Ugdru aimed to guard the objective whilst the Cult Officiant ran off to attack the Highborn Servant who, having reloaded, fired another poised round at the Slave, stunning her and guaranteeing her death.

Turn 5

The Cult Officiant and the Highborn Servant traded blows and the fickle fate of initiative left the Ugdru unable to stop the Nosferatu once again swooping in to contest the objective, leaving the game a draw.

We both really enjoyed the game. The fluidity of the movement rules led to some really dynamic moments, and the mechanics of will and command points allowed us to tinker with fate just enough. The core rules are simple enough to grasp (the most complex bit is deciphering the layout of the quick reference sheet) but will clearly be tricky to master.

I liked the game enough that I've ordered the starter set, and Wes mentioned potentially dipping his toes into the waters of Venice with the creepy-looking doctors of the Ospedale.

Expect to see more from Carnevale in due course.

Although I've not painted anything else this week, I might need to get a shift on to offset my purchases. However, I think this game more than qualifies as 'skirmish sized', therefore at least I've got another box ticked off.

Digging Up The Past

After thoroughly enjoying painting my most recent Crooked Dice acquisitions, I was prompted to return to some of the small 7TV backlog I have amassed.

In the hunt for easy wins, I settled on ploughing through the Pulp macguffins that I got as part of one of the Kickstarter campaigns.

It's an eclectic bunch of ancient treasures for whip-wielding archaeologists, deranged cultists and hard-boiled private dicks to pursue.

All were done with a combination of washes, contrast paints and drybrushing and no fancy stuff simply because I wanted to get them done quickly. They are also based fairly neutrally to allow them to slot into different genres and also serve as terrain at times.

These two should prove to be suitable treasures that need to be kept out of the hands of any passing nazis, but will surely be guarded by fiendishly complex death traps as well as lots of snakes.

Why does it have to be snakes?

Although one of these is clearly at the centre of a noir conspiracy full of intrigue and betrayal, the other is actually more likely to feature as some sort of totem of power for the Ape Revolutionary Committee in Pulp City.

Also, those flowers are not immediately obvious when you start painting. It was a bit of a shock to duscover them when I thought I'd almost finished.

These two might very well be likely to feature in Lurkers from the Deep when I finally get around to playing episode two. They are also eminently suitable for a potential upcoming project I will discuss later in the post.

I've never been desperate to play games within the Cthulhu mythos (apart from Lurkers, that is), but our recent campaign for Arkham Horror is shifting my mindset.

These two are generic treasures that would be suitable for the fantasy genre as well as pulp, in fact, I think I've got some very similar pieces from the Mantic Treasury Terrain Crate.

Finally I have the film reels, which is probably the most meta macguffin, and is also the one from the core set. I'm not sure which sorts of ganes this would be used for but I'm sure I'll think of something.

And now for something completely different...

Every so often I get an itch to try out a new game, but limited resources make cautious. Therefore one of the Cheaphammer habits Ive developed is rooting through my bits box to see what I can proxy to enable me to give a game a try before committing hard earned cash.

And so, when the itch to play Carnevale from TTCombat arrived, I dug out these Mantic ghouls to paint up as Strigoi.

Combined with the Barnabotti I got free with a magazine and a probably something rebased from my proxying of Guildball, I should be able to make a 50 ducat force to put up against some of my Cthulhuesque cultists (for which I now have suitable objectives) to give the game a try.

I just need to find someone to try it with.

All of this combined means I've made plenty of progress on the Hobby Bingo card:

• The macguffins have definitely been in my to do pile for over 6 months.
• I don't normally paint miniatures from Mantic since I stopped doing The Walking Dead.
• For some reason, the tick for playing a boardgame had disappeared at some point despite me posting about Arkham Horror.

On to of all this, I've put some clear daylight into the numbers of models acquired and painted. I am very tempted to invest in Carnevale, so a bit of breathing space should be beneficial.

Acquired: 25

Painted: 44

Hawk The Slayer Was Rubbish!

Don't punch me.

I'm just trying to get your attention for my recent painting exploits beyond the edge of darkness in a world of swords and sorcery.

These are the Raven's Revenge miniatures from Crooked Dice, based, less than loosely on the thinly sketched characters from 80s cult classic, Hawk the Slayer.

If you've never seen Hawk the Slayer, I can only assume that you had a miserable and bleak childhood or are too young to remember a time pre-Jackson, when fans of the fantasy genre had to take what they could get.

I can only recommend this slice of cinematic history. It's exactly as good as that poster suggests.

The somewhat bloodthirsty heroes remind me very much of a party of level one murder-hobos from an introductory adventure of AD&D.

• Nobody discussed what the others were playing, so the party is fighter heavy. 
• Hawk spent too long on his backstory.
• Crow has min-maxed archery.
• Gort enjoys violence without consequence a bit too much.
• Baldwin (the only rogue) steals from PCs and doesn't have enough hit points.
• Ranulf is cursed by bad dice rolls.
• The DM is forced to use an NPC to save a party devoid of ideas.

Hawk is the eponymous, and amazingly uncharismatic, hero played by John Terry (not that one). His father and fiancé were both killed by his brother Voltan, and he wields the legendary (and criminally underused) Mindsword.

Ranulf is a 'warrior' who manages to lose every fight he's in. He loses a hand early on in the film, which is something not represented on the model. 

I decided to leave him as he was as I didn't want to hack up the model and Ranulf's loss of a hand really doesn't impact on the film in any way thanks to his repeating crossbow and general rubbishness.

Gort, played by Bernard Bresslaw of Carry On fame, is referred to as a giant. In this context 'giant' means 'slightly taller man'. 

He eats, hits things with his hammer and devises cruel and unusual punishments far more unpleasant than anything the so-called villains ever come up with.

Baldwin is a Dwarf, and the character was clearly written by somebody who had clearly never engaged with any other works of fantasy, where Dwarves are one of the more consistent factors. At least he's a bit shorter than the others.

This whip-wielding thief serves no real purpose to the adventure save for being somewhat irritating and loosely filling the role of comic relief.

It's actually a relief when he dies.

Crow, the last Elf, has a legendary ability with a bow thanks to the power of really dodgy editing.

He also answers the question as to why Elves don't ever seem to have short hair: because they look like Vulcans.

The 'Woman' (seriously, that's the character's name - welcome to the 80s) is the most useful of any of them and boasts a range of powers that include:

• teleportation via fluorescent hula hoop;
• immobilisation with silly string;
• death by ping-pong ball.

As you can see, she is rightly feared.

Prince Voltan the Dark One is the villain of the piece and, with a name like that he was always going to be.

Played with scenery-chewing menace by Jack Palance, Voltan is apparently Hawk's brother, despite clearly being older than their father, who he kills.

I was worried that I'd made his eye to manic and staring...

...and then I realised I hadn't.

In all honesty, Hawk the Slayer is rubbish. However, that's the beauty of it and I can't wait to get these on a table. I probably need to paint up some nuns and murderous thugs so that I can play the Raven's Revenge scenario which appeared in a recent edition of Wargames Illustrated.

Pleasingly, not only can I call this bunch a 'unique warband' for Hobby Bingo, but I've also added a fairly healthy amount to the painted total.

Acquired: 25

Painted: 33

48 Hour Deliveries

Just a quick post about some quick painting I've completed in order to fill a box on my Hobby Bingo card.

These Crooked Dice drum and crate barricades are what I spent the £10 voucher I got for winning 'best cast' at Board in Brum last weekend.

It seemed appropriate to get something from at a 7TV event and boxes and barrels can find a home on all sorts of tables.

I've really not done anything special at all with these, simply basecoating and washing them with the aim of getting them done quickly.

I kept things simple so that they could be used in a variety of genres: WW2, pulp, post-apocalyptic, superhero, etc. I had no real goal for them rather than just adding to the range of scatter terrain I have available.

My reason for getting them painted so simply and quickly was to complete the 'paint a mini within 48 hours of receiving it' box on my Hobby Bingo card.

Given I got them on Saturday and had them finished by Sunday evening, that's mission accomplished in my book.

I'm not sure that basecoating and washing barrels and boxes was the intent of that challenge, but it's how I'm reading it. I'm also narrowly back in the black, so it's been a good week so far.

Acquired: 25

Painted 26