Games Workshop's Space Hulk - Made in Denmark?

Hello all,
Just noticed that the forthcoming Iphone (Ipad?) version of the best game Games Workshop ever made (i.e. Space Hulk) is being made by a Danish Company. A company based in Copenhagen called "Full Control". I have no idea who they might be but the fact that this game is being produced in my backyard is pretty fun. I used to play the original board game every wednesday night and there is so much fun in those dark scary corridors.
Twenty years ago (more or less, probably more...) I was at a gaming conference where we (twenty players) played one squad member each, could only communicate with team members nearby and the entire room was pitch black except emergency beacons etc. Loud scary music. Easily one of the best gaming experiences ever...
And now it will be coming on the Ipad. Apparently similar to the game X-Com, which looks good.

Oh well, really hope they do the brand and country proud :-).

 Links:
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sepWI5pMGSw&feature=player_embedded
Article: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/games-workshops-space-hulk-coming-to-iphone-not-android-50009957/
Full Control: http://www.fullcontrol.dk/games_spacehulk.html

All the best,
Tokasper

Zombicide! Tie Guy Zombie (Walkers IV)

Hello all,
Almost at the end of the different zombies from Zombicide! I couldn't come up with a fancy name for this particular zombie but he is a classic shambling zombie.

Verdict: Perhaps the weakest of the sculpts. A bit too non-descript (which is also something of a good thing as you do not really notice it is the same mini once they are painted differently) and without any 'fun' details. The hands also suffer from the 'zombicide!'-syndrome and are poorly defined. Otherwise a quick paint job.



Zombicide! Information:The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-type zombie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Jogging Zombies (Painted Runners II)

Hello all,
Proof that exercise won't help you when the apocalypse comes a'knocking: more zombies, this time the remaining Runners. Zombies with double the speed of normal Walkers, these zombies will get their Brainzzz much faster and thereby spell the destruction of your Survivors:

 Arggh!!!!

These are, in my opinion, more intimidating than the other runners (posted here), yet remain disturbingly normal human beings: in their exercise clothing they look like they were having a nice jog in the park when "something" happened to them and they got a bit Brain-hungry.
Great minis - fingers are suffering from bad sculpting (?) but a large dab of blood will make that impossible to notice. No weird little detail on these minis, unfortunately.

Zombicide! Information:The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-type zombie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Fatty (Painted Zombies: Fat Zombies I)

Hello all,
Continuing with the minis from the game Zombicide! we turn to the Fatties. These are the bigger and badder type of zombies that will cause survivors some difficulties, especially early on. So do the minis represent this increased level of trouble? My verdict comes after the pictures :-).

 

First of a 'family' picture of the four identical Fatties that come in each tray of minis. 

 

 And in pairs - these are without flash, not sure if they work.

And some with flash - which do you prefer?

Verdict: They certainly are big, scary, and intimidating. They remind of the possessed butcher from Diabolo (who scared the shits out of me the first time he spawned). So yes they do fit their role.
And as was the case with the Abomination, these also have weird details. The tool belt is a nice touch (it appears they enjoy eating certain types of meat...) but the gas mask around their necks is a bit undefined and just weird.
Also, considering that these are the most difficult type of Zombie (Abomniations aside), a bit of diversity would have been nice - i.e. two types would have been perfect.
All in all, they are great minis that could be used in many games (with a bit of work they would be excellent Nurgle type minis) that also look great on the Zombicide! game board.



Zombicide! Information:The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-type zombie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Guest Star Zombies

Hello all,
In order to get the Zombies painted I needed to make sure my two boys weren't destroying the house while I was painting. So why not let them paint some of the hundreds of zombies available?
These two zombies were the result. Not too bad, and they will count as painted zombies :-).

My eight year old son's zombie is the runner on the left:

And my 4 year old's is the bloody walker on the right:

Plenty of blood, if nothing else :-).

More (real) zombie paint jobs coming soon.


All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Abomination 1 (Painted Zombies)

Hello all,
Another of the Zombies from Zombicide! This time it is one of those insane Abominations. This guy hits like a wrecking ball and will only die when you smash him over the head with a molotov cocktail.
So does the mini convey this utter bad ass character?

To be honest, yes he does look bad ass, and will scare all survivors not presently toting a cocktail of doom into the fartest corner of the city. His head is about the size of a 10mm mini...
A great mini, fun to paint and there is quite a few weird details on him. Apart fromt he obvious spikes protruding from his oversized body, he has a small camera around his neck.. A camera? I guess they meant this to indicate something of what he was up to before become the ultimate tank-zombie, but why a tourist? But it was fun to imagine him as a fat German on holidays who got a bit too close to whatever caused the outbreak of zombification.

Good fun, and can't wait to paint another!

The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-type zombie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Average Joe Zombie (Painted Walkers III)

Hello all,
Another of the Zombies from Zombicide! This time its a Walker type, one I have named 'Average Joe', as he looks, well, average :-).
Wearing jeans and an undershirt, he is quite unremarkable but serves as a great generic zombie.

Pros and cons:
The easiest of the lot to paint - few details and unproblematic pose. Very Zombie-like and easy to do in plenty of variations.
He is a bit on the boring side, and his left hand must have been bitten by some other zombie as there is a lot of detail missing.
A very 'average' zombie :-).

The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-type zombie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Ipod Zombie (Painted Runners I)

Hello all,
More Zombies! And this time its those feared Runners - double the speed of normal Walkers, these zombies will get their Brainzzz much faster and thereby spell the destruction of your Survivors.
Although a very quick paint job they did turn out quite intimidating:

 Although I'm not that much of a fan of quick zombies these are scary Zombies!

Pros: Great mini - looks intimidating and scary. Fun painting - good details, little flash and no unidentifiable details. The Ipad (which I for some time thought was a stethoscope...) is a fun detail which makes them very modern,a s do the running fear. Great face (if you can describe the brainhunger as great).
Cons: Nothing really negative - perhaps the Ipad is a bit weird, especially as you need to turn the mini around to figure out what the weird wire is. Not liking the tab under  the raised foot, but in realit you do not really notice it.
All in all a great mini that looks the part it plays in the game. Also, you should paint the runners first, it is really important to be able to identify these quickly in the game,

The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-thingie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Sexy Ladies of the Night (Painted Walkers II)

Hello all,
The second type of Walker from the game Zombicide had me confused for some time. Was she a classy lady or a member of that unfortuante part of humanity who makes a living by walking along the streets at night. If so, she would naturally have been an easy target for the first zombies.

 She seems to half way between classy and trampy - but quite scary - look at the 10mm crossbowman hiding behind his shield...

Verdict on the mini:
Pros: Great fun to paint, some clear details, looks quite scary due to mixed signals.
Cons: I have a few problems with this model. Some with the figure itself, e.g. the hands are terrible - unless they are supposed to represent half-eaten fingers. In addition, the necklace seems a bit out of place and halfdone. A second issue is that she is so distinct - even with different colour schemes she sticks out amongst the shuffling horde and is the first one where you go "oh, its the same miniature repeated over and over". Which is a shame.
But all in all it is still a good mini, fun to paint - and having painted only Skaven and 10mm historicals for some twenty years it was quite fun to paint panties for once :-).


The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-thingie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).


Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide! Wall Street Zombie (Painted Walkers I)

Hello all,
Finally had some sun in Denmark so I could get some half good pictures taken as my entire photo-setup has gone missing.
Anyways, I've managed to paint more than a tray of the Zombies that came with the brilliant game (Zombicide) and thought I would show what I did with them and share my thoughts on the quality of the minis. Bear in mind that you do get a shit load of figures with the game so my expectations were not that high before I got my hands on the game.

The zombies are divided into four classes; Walkers (your average slow moving, easy to kill zombie although they spawn by the million), Runners (quick and semi intelligent, most likely candidate to destroy your Survivor), Fatties (Huge bloated master zombies - hard to kill at first but halfway through the game you'll fear the runners more) and finally the Abomination (the super-zombie-tank-destroyer-thingie).
In each tray there is two types of Runner (8 total), five different models of Walker (20 total) and one fatty (4 copies) so each tray holds 32 zombies, while the abomination gets his own little tray - he would probably just eat the other zombies otherwise. (So I got 96 zombies, two Abominations and nine survivors in the initial Kickstarter pack - that's a lot of zombies!).

The first type is the Walker: Type 1 (aka "the Business Man):

 I included a 10mm crossbowman just to scale reference the Zombie...

So, to begin with these Zombies represents the first large batch of 28mm models that I have painted in a long, long time. This meant I had to re-think how to do stuff that once came automatic. But I decided this first batch would be a good place to relearn and so tried different methods. On these I used washes to paint their business attires and think that went ok. Remember these have been photographed in sun light so they look much better in real life - a lot more scary at least.
The blood was that great stuff made by Tamira - continues to look like fresh blood even when dried and great fun to dap, paint, and blob onto the zombies.
I should probably do something about their eyes.

Verdict on the mini:
Pros: Great fun to paint, good clear details, looks quite scary in a shuffling Zombie like way, realistic model
Cons: Not really any - it is subdued enough that with a bit of variance you don't really notice that its the same model coming to kill you.

Stay tuned for the rest of the zombies!

All the best,
Kasper

Tired of shaking Vallejo paints?

Hello all,

Painting the bazillion Zombies included in the game Zombicide! required using quite a few colours that I normally never use for painting my 10mm armies. And as these are Vallejo paints it means that they were completely seperated. As anyone who has used Vallejo knows these paints are among the best out there - their colour pigments are excellent and a pleasure to paint with. But - and this is a big but - they also seperate verye asilyu and once seperated they need approximately 10 minutes of shaking to get back into shape and become the colour they used to be. This really annoys me, and being lazy I never really shook them as much as they needed whereby they wouldn't really cover nor shine as well as they could.

So to solve this problem I devised the following gizmo to shake my paints for me - almost instantly and without any hassle. And its free as well:

It is basicly a container (in this case a small plastic bottle which can hold three Vallejo paints at one time), a random piece of metal tool that can fit into a drill, and a power drill.

The lid of the container is quickly attached to the metal tool (in this case by tape).

And, presto, after five minutes of construction time, and five seconds of "drilling" the paints go from completely seperated pigments to fully shaken and perfect coverage and colour. It literally takes a few seconds to shake three pots of colour and it is a lot more fun to work with a power drill than to sit and shake for five minutes of your precious painting time.

Lets name it the "Kasper Gizmo!" :-).

Best regards,
Kasper

Zombicide!: First playtest - Superb game!

Hello all,
Got to playtest the Zombicide! game yesterday evening with three friends and we were all  impressed bythe game.
I think we all (four players, of which three are very experienced board-gamers) rated the game near maximum - somewhere around the 9 out of 10 mark.

A few random words of praise:
* The rules are succinct and easily read and remembered. Although I was the only one to have read the rules (twice) and we spent about half an hour goofing around and learning the rules, once the game began I don' think we needed to consult the rulebook more than four or five times. Pretty impressive. In addition, the nifty summary on the backside of the rules? Well, I had made a few copies but after the first turn noone needed to consult them anymore. Even more impressive. Very intuitive.
* The game itself flows smoothly, is quite frankly intense. Very intense! I read somewhere a review which described the game as cinematic, and it really did feel like watching a zombie-survivor horror film at times. Quite scary to see a horde of zombies shuffling down the street towards your few survivors.
* The board is brilliant - great design, brilliant details etc.
* Great variety within the game - plenty of different items and gadgets. The Survivors are very diverse - some are fighters others are more akin to scouts or gatherers. Some are better than others but that doesn't really trouble me.
* The missions seem to be very diverse as well, and all in all I think the game has excellent replay value - even without any future additions.
* The experience system is brilliant - great fun getting better skills and at the same time intimidating to watch more and more zombies enter the game (as the amount scales to the best player in the game).
* The whole idea and mechanics of the zombies being controlled by the game rules is great and works almost perfectly.

And a few minor irritations:
*Game length - although it was our first game, difficult mission etc the game appears to be just a bit too long to squeeze two games into a single evening of leisurely gaming. Although this might change with more experience etc. Also a turn limit might increase the pressure even more, which could be fun....
* Perhaps a bit too few "surprises" - Although deadly and nasty, I felt there was a bit too long between special event-cards - i.e. when zombies suddenly pop up from manhole-covers etc.
* We quickly became supremely well-equipped (Sniper rifles, dual SMGs, etc) sue to intensive searching and the Survivor Ned's special abilities. This somehow felt to have happened a bit too quickly.
* A bit too much "micro"-management e.g. swapping items between players to create perfect combinations - but perhaps we were a bit too cooperative in our attempts at surviving.
* Minor rule issues: e.g. that a molotov cocktail makes noise when it is thrown not when it explodes :-).

But, apart from these few comments we were very pleased with the entire experience and heartily recommend the game. And to paint the minis - made the game a lot more fun that the zombies were painted (btw, one 'tray' of zombies was fine until we came into the 'orange' danger level).

Anyways, I'm so glad I bought this game!

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide Painting Progress: I

Hello all,
So almost got a third of the zombies ready. They just need a few touch-ups, base details and of course that all important blood-gore-splattering!
So far I am quite pleased with the models. I'll be doing a review of each of the eight different zombies and how they paint up, but so far so good. There are a few irritating details, i.e. the zombie disease seems to eat away any new zombies fingers - for some reason most of the sculpts only have weird clumps to represent fingers.

Apart from that they are pretty cool, and some are even intimidating (especially so the runners and the two female sculpts).

All the best,
Kasper

Zombicide: Initial impressions

Hello all,
As I mentioned earlier, I was one of the lucky ones who backed the game Zombicide (produced by Cool Mini or Not and Guillotine Games) on Kickstarter. After a lenghty discussion with the Danish custom authorities (argh!) I finally got the game home this weekend and thought I would just share my initial impressions with you guys.
Also, weirdly enough, the game arrived on the same day we threw a Zombie birthday party for my son - hence the picture below

The blogger considering wether or not to slay this young zombie - notice the T-shirt :-).

So, initial impressions (I'm planning on painting a few zombies tonight and playtesting the game with a few friends next week, so stay tuned!)...
* The game looks and feels amazing. High quality and tons of details.
* The rules seem well-written (a few errors and discontinuities aside) and simple enough to produce a great cinematic game, without having to look up every last move in the process.
* The ton of miniatures are of an adequate detail level (I'll know better once I get a few painted). The soft plastic doesn't seem an issue. They seem to be quite tall - i.e. Games Workshop tall. And the amount of minis is just stupefying - especially with the Abomination add-on I bought.
* Also, I cannot help but be amazed at the skill with which they have packed so much content into the box - quite ingenious.
* All the extra stuff are fine - T-shirt seems of good quality, the print is fine (although what I'm going to do with that I do not know, not like the wife will allow that on the wall....),a nd the extra die are cool.
* The only minor issue I have so far is that the cards (items, random events etc) are a bit small - they seem to disappear in my hands, and I would have preferred regular sized cards. But once the zombies start pounding on the door I don't really think that will be something you worry about too much.

So far, it seems a brilliant game, with great miniatures, and I cannot wait to try it out.

The contents of the box (including the Abomination additions). My own camera ate the picture so this one is stolen from www.goodreads.com/author/show/5151420.Michael_Langlois/blog who wrote a review of the game

All the best,
Kasper

Manliest of Manly Terrain - Beer Coaster terrain!

Hello all,
Today I have the honour of presenting the Manliest of Manly Terrain ever produced! The Beer Coaster Terrain Things! Prepare to want one now!
All that aside, I found that the beerbottles we drink while wargaming had a small tendency to remove some of the flock on my gamingmat, so I figured we needed some proper beercoasters that would fit into the whole terrain look.
So, without any further ado, I give you: BCTTs (Beer Coaster Terrain Thingstm):

 Whats not to love? Combining the two essentials of wargaming; Beer and Terrain!

Missing their most important ingredient, but still looking good.

Now if only we could remember to use them in the heat fo the battle :-)


All the best,
Kasper

Warmaster siege! 3000 York vs. Teutonians

Hello all,
a month ago (time sure flies) we managed to play our first siege game using the Warmaster siege rules. The short story is that it was great fun and the rules really worked. We made a few mistakes, especially in the choice of attacking troops but all in all it was great fun.
Below are a string of pictures that documented the endeavour - all are clickable which will enlarge them. Also, of course, there will be a few comments and armylists/results.

Army lists:
Besieged - The Black Teutonians of Wales
Grand Master, Magister, 2x Brother Knights, 1x Crusader Knights, 1x Spearmen, 12x Crossbowmen, Fortified Gate, 10x Boiling Oil,3x Hoarding, 1x repair, 11x Light Artillery

Besieger - House of York
General, 4x Lords, 1x Mounted Men-At-Arms, 2x Currours, 6x Men-at-Arms, 4x Shire Bill, 9x Irish, 10x Shire Longbow, 3x Siege Towers, 2x battering rams, 60cm earthworks, 12x Ladders, 3x Heavy Cannons, 2x Organ Guns.

 The view from inside the fortress.

 Right side of the besiegers

 The first major event of the siege was that a group of defenders decided they needed to escape and had to be placed outside the fortress (random event roll). This turned out to be a brilliant help to the besiegers as they continued to be a nasty torn in the side of the attackers.
Oh, and thats my oldest son watching our moves carefully - I'll make a wargamer out of him!

 A serious attacker - wondering what to do about all those defenders...

 All three heavy cannons shot at a section of wall with only one hit point left - a single "6" would have made everything much easier. Alas, no damage and the defenders used a "repair" to make sure the walls held.

 The aggressive defenders endanger several siege towers and the entire battle plan.

 The cannonfodder, sorry Irish warbands attempt the first assault using ladders....

 Did not go as planned and they were easily repelled.

 Skirmishing in front of the gate,

 while the defenders kept whittling down anything that came within range.

 Notice the smug smile on the defenders face. Indicates everything is progressing well.

 The last skirmishes in front of the gate to remove the valiant defenders.

 Finally a ram manages to get to the wall, and an ominous pounding begins.

 Although there is quite a welcoming committee on the other side...

 On the other flank, a siege tower unloads thousands of screaming Irish,

 Unfortunately, the cheap warbands are not up to the task and the defending teutonians manage to push them back and destroy the tower in the process

 On the other flank, more qualified Men-at-Arms close in on the walls with their own siege tower.

 The gate is down to one hit point...

 The Men-at-Arms manage to break through, and have taken the walls.

 At the same time the gate finally falls, but what to do about all those defenders?

 Elsewhere, the heavy cannons have finally pounded a hole into the walls, but there are no troops nearby to benefit from the opportunity.

 Instead, a furious battle for the gate begins, with hundreds of brave knights dying in an attempt at getting inside and plundering liberating the city.

 Unfortunately, the defenders win (bloody teutonian armoured tanks!) and surge out to destroy more innocent troops...

 On the flank where the Men-at-Arms managed to take the wall, a deadly barrage of crossbows and light artillery concentrate their fire and sends the Yorkian troops fleeing. 

With a large hole in the wall they were unable to exploit, several sections of defenders removed but no troops to atatck them, and the unbeatable defenders in the centre rampaging, the House of York decided that this was not the best time to press the attack and pulled back.



Results:
Teutonian Victory!

Although the defenders were decimated on the left flank and were pressed elsewhere there was little the Yorkians could do. A bit more luck with the cannons, better troops in the right place and less aggressive defenders they will be the ones celebrating the next time, perhaps...

 
Casualties:
Teutonian: 3x Crossbowmen + 1x crusader = 300p
House of York: 1x Siege Tower, 5x Irish, 2x Men-at-Arms, 1 Lord, 1x Currours, ½ Bill: 585
- with penalties that meant the House of York reached a break point of 17 and clearly lost.

Great fun, hope the pictures show it :-). Next time will see much better strategies and more quality troops doing the main assaulting/defending.

All the best,
Kasper