The Second Apocalypse

Miscellaneous Chatter => General Misc. => Topic started by: TaoHorror on December 18, 2017, 06:24:23 pm

Title: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 18, 2017, 06:24:23 pm
Starting this thread off Q conversation, here are some miniatures I had professionally painted. The first 3 are from a game called Kingdom Death: Monster. 2 and 3 are the same figure painted by 2 different artists. The 4th is from Malifaux.

https://i.imgur.com/VCebAKx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VKQucyY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/x9HcMUB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BpTBoYR.jpg
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 18, 2017, 06:35:16 pm
Great stuff.  I'll try to get some pictures of some of my Warhammer stuff up eventually.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 18, 2017, 07:29:24 pm
I'm learning to play a new board game I got with my oldest son ( he's almost 15 years old ) called Lobotomy - it's about you're a patient in an insane asylum and trying to escape. The Warden figure is worth the price of the game, one of the funniest figures ever made. Mind you, the Warden doesn't actually look like this, of course - he's just a human. This is how the Warden appears to you, as a delusionary phycho trying to escape the hospital, LOL! You have to kill "monsters" who are just other people and staff with "weapons" which may just be a potted plant for which you think is a gun. Clever game.

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/004/272/612/26f6de3bd5268ae253d18ed3c6874077_original.jpg?w=639&fit=max&v=1438880364&auto=format&q=92&s=561d9c87dc0ff333ffc2ddef3c4f654e
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Bolivar on January 05, 2018, 11:56:26 pm
Awesome stuff, Tao. Would definitely love to see your Warhammer figures, H. Kinda wish I had gotten into it as a kid, I don't have the time or space for it now but it's always awesome seeing what other people have done with the figures.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on January 05, 2018, 11:58:40 pm
Completely forgot about this thread. Will have some pix coming up soon.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 06, 2018, 12:28:36 am
Some more nasties for ya

https://i.imgur.com/sYBpujv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ur1glqD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RJ5FtLe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iKgjOt5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SqlaRQ4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4RbuJom.jpg
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 08, 2018, 03:25:11 pm
Awesome stuff, Tao. Would definitely love to see your Warhammer figures, H. Kinda wish I had gotten into it as a kid, I don't have the time or space for it now but it's always awesome seeing what other people have done with the figures.

Working on getting stuff organized.  Just built a corner desk to help with that.  Might try to snap a few pictures soon.  Nothing is really painted though, unfortunately...

Some more nasties for ya

https://i.imgur.com/sYBpujv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ur1glqD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RJ5FtLe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iKgjOt5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SqlaRQ4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4RbuJom.jpg

Nice stuff.  That blue guy is a really cool mini it seems, as is that "black knight" with the huge flail.

I like a boxum woman, but some of those sculpts,  :o  ::)  ;)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 08, 2018, 03:54:54 pm
Here's another view of that knight with the huge flail, I love the art of it ( thing is too big to be wieldy, hee hee ).

https://i.imgur.com/QdCTeXl.jpg

Yeah, Kingdom Death ( the game whose miniatures you're referring to ) gets a lot of flack on the portrayal of their fe-male figures. Their response has been consistent, they "create without restriction" - nice way of telling anyone to fuck off if they don't like it, LOL.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 08, 2018, 04:41:25 pm
Here's another view of that knight with the huge flail, I love the art of it ( thing is too big to be wieldy, hee hee ).

https://i.imgur.com/QdCTeXl.jpg

Yeah, Kingdom Death ( the game whose miniatures you're referring to ) gets a lot of flack on the portrayal of their fe-male figures. Their response has been consistent, they "create without restriction" - nice way of telling anyone to fuck off if they don't like it, LOL.

I just feel it's a little bit more over-the-top than I'd prefer.  Mind you, I like some over-the-top-ness.  Too much though and you're not over the top, there just isn't a top...it's maybe a case of when everything is made to stand out, nothing does?

Also, came across this company recently: Mierce Miniatures (https://www.mierce-miniatures.com/).

If I was rich, I'd probably get every one of them...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: BeardFisher-King on January 08, 2018, 04:47:18 pm
If it's too over-the-top, it becomes.....topless! Yowsa!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 08, 2018, 05:16:34 pm
Yeah, I've got some from them, Mierce Miniatures. Tasty stuff. There's some killer stuff out there ( Dark Sword and even some Reaper stuff ). Let me tell you, I have learned a lot - for one, fuck resin, I don't give a shit how cool they can make the figure look - too fucking hard to glue that shit together and they break easy. I'm almost only going for fully formed sculpts for now on. Once painted, the full plastic ones look great and they're getting better and better making them with nice details. Some of the best figures coming out are with board games selling on kickstarter ( check out Vampire Hunters, Zombicide, Rising Sun, Darkness Sabotage, Village Attacks, The Edge: Dawnfall, Middara ), you get a LOT of bang for your buck backing one of those getting a bunch of very cool miniatures and a cool ass board game to boot. If you like cool fantasy art, check out Middara, that is one beautiful game ( I think the last chance to jump in is Jan 31st as a late backer ). I'm backing that one and grabbed the art book as an add-on. Village Attacks is awesome, the theme is very clever - you play the monsters in a haunted castle and the villagers are the "enemy" who come to kill you off, hee hee. Darkness Sabotage ( a sci-fi horror themed game ) is by a Canadian company, wicked cool monster miniatures and has a mode where you can play the demons ( more hee hee hee's from me! ). Poland is hot with board games these days with The Edge hailing from there - these cats are doing an interesting tech/fantasy theme and the mini's are dope; another game of their, Lords of Hellas, is shipping now to backers ( didn't back that one ) and has greek mythological creatures done up "techy", kinda cool.

For those in the US, a game was offered in kickstarter called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - I backed that one since I have some personal connection to the location in NY ( I'm from near there originally ). VERY cool art, not many miniatures, but the ones it has look nice. I wonder how well known that legend is outside USA ( I'm guessing Canadians know of it, it's location is closer to Canada than most of the USA ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 08, 2018, 05:43:32 pm
Yeah, I've never had a good experience with resin, honestly.  Plastic is just so much better, in every way.

As for Kickstarters, a lot of those look nice, but it's hard for me to spend, when I am both poor and having a metric ton of Warhammer stuff that needs to be built and painted, haha.

However, this campaign (https://cmon.com/news/hate-is-coming-exclusively-to-kickstarter) looks pretty interesting and is something I'm going to take a look at when it comes online (January 16th).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 08, 2018, 05:58:48 pm
Warhammer stuff that needs to be built and painted, haha.

Get on it! We want to see! I hear ya about the money, I'm tapping out soon on this stuff as well - I turned 50 this past year and the wife agreed to me doing something silly and irresponsible ... in other words, "fun".

However, this campaign (https://cmon.com/news/hate-is-coming-exclusively-to-kickstarter) looks pretty interesting and is something I'm going to take a look at when it comes online (January 16th).

Yeah, I was planning on backing that one too ... sigh ... trying to stop myself from having a KS "problem", but too much cool shit is coming out, not my fault! I've been contributing to their ( may be fan created, not sure ) facebook page, you should consider following it, they've released a lot of photos of the mini's on it. I've given them feedback on how I think the mini's are too similar looking, so hoping the stretch goals provide some variety ... but looks wicked.

I have an idea for a game, but not sure I have it in me to pursue it ( would need to design it, ensure proper game logic, team up with an artist ... could be a fuckload of work. )
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 08, 2018, 06:12:19 pm
Get on it! We want to see! I hear ya about the money, I'm tapping out soon on this stuff as well - I turned 50 this past year and the wife agreed to me doing something silly and irresponsible ... in other words, "fun".

The other issue is free time...my hope is that I can get fully organized and then make some small headway.  Perhaps one of the kids will take an interest too.

Yeah, I was planning on backing that one too ... sigh ... trying to stop myself from having a KS "problem", but too much cool shit is coming out, not my fault! I've been contributing to their ( may be fan created, not sure ) facebook page, you should consider following it, they've released a lot of photos of the mini's on it. I've given them feedback on how I think the mini's are too similar looking, so hoping the stretch goals provide some variety ... but looks wicked.

I have an idea for a game, but not sure I have it in me to pursue it ( would need to design it, ensure proper game logic, team up with an artist ... could be a fuckload of work. )

Yeah, they'd make some interesting Barbarians/Giants for other games (namely t9A) so I am going to keep an eye on it.

How neat would a Warhammer-esque tSA game be?  Just as long as no one gets to be Kellhus, haha.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 08, 2018, 08:28:43 pm
How neat would a Warhammer-esque tSA game be?  Just as long as no one gets to be Kellhus, haha.

That would be wicked - I brought up making a board game version of TSA, but was in the D&D thread I think, so didn't get any traction.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 08, 2018, 08:45:07 pm
Board games are growing in popularity. It wouldn't be the worst idea :) .
Someone around here is, in fact, developing a boardgame loosely based on the TSA.
For the record (for those who don't know) Bakker said he thought makeing a Total War franchise esque video game would be ideal for his vision of TSA.
Large scale war games fit nicely into the world, and maybe easier to balance than a more RPG style game.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 08, 2018, 10:53:48 pm
Someone around here is, in fact, developing a boardgame loosely based on the TSA.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude ... do tell!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 09, 2018, 03:10:47 pm
Even if you're not into board games, this cat's review of Nemesis is fricken hilarious ... give it a whirl if any of you have some free time and want a laugh ( the game looks cool, just his presentation is intentionally quite funny ). The game is a clear ripoff of Alien, but looks kinda cool. I love the alien miniature holding up one of it's "babies".

https://youtu.be/DYnjmnpY0EA
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 09, 2018, 06:19:23 pm
Someone around here is, in fact, developing a boardgame loosely based on the TSA.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude ... do tell!

Sorry, I thought you knew. In that case:
It's called The Vulgar Holy War (http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=2101.msg32096#msg32096), and was made by Frail (http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?action=profile;u=23583).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on February 10, 2018, 08:09:06 pm
There's a live KS going for a game called Planet Apocalypse. Think I'm going to back it. Scroll down near the bottom of the front page, there's a nice turn table view of the miniatures. It's Lovecraftian Horror meets Kingdom Death. I like Lovecraft, the lore is cool, but haven't bought into any of the Cthulhu games, the monsters just seem a mess to me with eyeballs and mouths everywhere - more "over the top" in lieu of "art". This game is by the same guy ( I think ), but he's imho doing a nice job of introducing art into the monsters this go around and they're much more appealing to me ( though he's over using the head-ish coming out of the rear-end design bit too much - I do like it, but doesn't need to be on almost every monster ). Kinda a fun theme with "normal" people fighting otherworldly demons and such, some humor there.

And H, where the fuck are the pictures of your WH figures?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on February 10, 2018, 08:26:19 pm
Here's my obliterator, pic a bit blurry https://imgur.com/a/FluWY
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on February 10, 2018, 10:56:20 pm
Here's my obliterator, pic a bit blurry https://imgur.com/a/FluWY

Very cool, looks like he means business  :)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on February 12, 2018, 11:18:52 am
Here's my obliterator, pic a bit blurry https://imgur.com/a/FluWY

Nice!  I have several of those that "were" built.  They weren't painted though and over time (and a couple moves) the little weapon bits have broken off...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on February 12, 2018, 12:17:55 pm
Here's my obliterator, pic a bit blurry https://imgur.com/a/FluWY

Nice!  I have several of those that "were" built.  They weren't painted though and over time (and a couple moves) the little weapon bits have broken off...

Ah, the bane of our miniature collecting existence ... our prophet, he does not heal.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 05, 2018, 11:11:50 am
(http://i.imgur.com/X40uB8xm.jpg) (https://imgur.com/X40uB8x)

(Picture was pretty huge, click it for full size if you want.)

Been pretty busy, but I finally managed to get the "hobby corner" in some kind of shape.

Next adventure is to learn how to airbrush...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on April 05, 2018, 11:31:52 am
The track lighting is very nice. Looks like many hours of fun waiting to be had.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 05, 2018, 11:43:06 am
The track lighting is very nice. Looks like many hours of fun waiting to be had.

They are actually LED's that are meant to go behind a TV, but just happened to be about the perfect size.  They even change colors and stuff, which looks neat but is totally worthless, haha.  But I really need to find some decent desk lights that I can put some LED daylight bulbs into.  While it looks bright due to the flash on the camera, it's really not great for painting.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 05, 2018, 05:05:24 pm
Aw, man, so nice - I need to build/get one of those ( my house is too small! ) and stop paying people to paint my mini's. I bought some paints/brushes to get started and then had hand surgery. I should be in good enough shape to get going, I have plenty of "patients" I can try out my brush on to get good before attempting awesome stuff.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 05, 2018, 05:25:51 pm
Aw, man, so nice - I need to build/get one of those ( my house is too small! ) and stop paying people to paint my mini's. I bought some paints/brushes to get started and then had hand surgery. I should be in good enough shape to get going, I have plenty of "patients" I can try out my brush on to get good before attempting awesome stuff.

I certainly am not a "good" painter at all.  And I have no time to really practice either, but I am trying.  The airbrush is mainly so that I can prime stuff without having to go outside, because even when the weather is OK to spray, there is so much pollen, wind, etc, that the results aren't great.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on April 05, 2018, 06:38:19 pm
What sort of armies do you guys play?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 05, 2018, 08:13:32 pm
What sort of armies do you guys play?

Right now, I am trying to get back into 40k and am working on my Necrons.  I also have a decent sized Adetptus Ministorum (Sisters) army, but it isn't even really tabletop ready.  I have a bit of Ork stuff, but it's not built and I had some Chaos Marines, but I sold most of them.  I do have a ton of Deamons, but they aren't built and those that are were put on square bases, not round.

I have a ton of fantasy stuff, Dark Elves, Vampires, Skaven, Orks, Choas, Deamons, Tomb Kings, High Elves and some Lizardmen.  Most of it is built, but I have a lot of unbuilt boxes left.  Poor Fantasy though, I never bothered with Age of Sigmar.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on April 05, 2018, 08:35:38 pm
What sort of armies do you guys play?

Right now, I am trying to get back into 40k and am working on my Necrons.  I also have a decent sized Adetptus Ministorum (Sisters) army, but it isn't even really tabletop ready.  I have a bit of Ork stuff, but it's not built and I had some Chaos Marines, but I sold most of them.  I do have a ton of Deamons, but they aren't built and those that are were put on square bases, not round.

I have a ton of fantasy stuff, Dark Elves, Vampires, Skaven, Orks, Choas, Deamons, Tomb Kings, High Elves and some Lizardmen.  Most of it is built, but I have a lot of unbuilt boxes left.  Poor Fantasy though, I never bothered with Age of Sigmar.
Haha yeah. The ironic thing is that fantasy was aesthetically superior to 40k. To me, 40k is a manchild neckbeard, whereas fantasy is a nerdy guy who does have a large and unkempt beard but works out and is decently intelligent. Got any Clan Moulder stuff? They are the most Tleilaxu-ish faction in Fantasy.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 05, 2018, 08:55:33 pm
Haha yeah. The ironic thing is that fantasy was aesthetically superior to 40k. To me, 40k is a manchild neckbeard, whereas fantasy is a nerdy guy who does have a large and unkempt beard but works out and is decently intelligent. Got any Clan Moulder stuff? They are the most Tleilaxu-ish faction in Fantasy.

I have a ton of Skaven, more Pestilence and Skyre stuff than Moulder, but I have more than a unit of pretty much everything they ever made.  I even have some of the 2nd (or maybe 3rd) edition Clan Rats, plus more new in box.  When I get a chance, I made a kit-bashed Hellpit Abomination when the army book first came out featuring it, but with no model for it.  It's hard to photo right now, because it's primed black and I tried, failingly to basecoat parts of it.  Once I get my airbrush set up, I might try it out on that to give it a good base and paint it a bit, so one could see what it looks like.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 06, 2018, 02:44:55 pm
Ah, wish I learned to play 40k, so many know it and love it. Here's to seeing some of your work, H. TL, you got anything to share?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 06, 2018, 04:04:34 pm
Ah, wish I learned to play 40k, so many know it and love it. Here's to seeing some of your work, H. TL, you got anything to share?

8th edition is pretty "simple" all things considered, but of course that depends on general familiarity with the system, but they really did stream-line most of the aspects of the game.  I'd bet you could probably pick up the rules in 1-2 games with a reasonable person teaching you.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on May 01, 2018, 12:43:18 pm
Couple of tasty games on the KS, think you fans of PON might like the theme of these:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/87981545/court-of-the-dead-mourners-call-board-game?ref=email

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lmstudio/black-rose-wars

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alterego-games/the-faceless?ref=kickthetable

Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on May 05, 2018, 12:22:45 am
I need a favor - for those of you depraved enough to have a Facebook account, can you join this group for 16 days? You can stay in it indefinitely, of course, but if you don't mind helping out, we have a "social" stretch goal for this game based on number of Facebook members. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a materialistic pile of shit, but you guys don't judge and accept me for who I am  :D

https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackrosewarsofficialfangroup/
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: BeardFisher-King on May 06, 2018, 02:39:53 am
Happy to oblige, Tao!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on May 07, 2018, 11:33:33 am
I had heard about that Kickstarter.  Joined the group for you.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on May 07, 2018, 06:29:51 pm
Happy to oblige, Tao!

I had heard about that Kickstarter.  Joined the group for you.

You guys are rock stars, thank you so much! They've released MORE mad cool figures just today, sigh - I'm in love. Malacoda, Barbariccia, Hashomer to name a few. This game is making me love! Manipulation! Dunyain creators here!

(https://i.imgur.com/BRCvxtM.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HOwHaJY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/AREAKUL.jpg)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on June 19, 2018, 12:03:07 pm
Gloomhaven, anyone seen it, anyone played it?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174430/gloomhaven

pic of some of the miniatures: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3113798/gloomhaven?size=large

A bit pricey maybe, but boardgames with miniatures tend to be. Looks pretty cool. Kind of like D&D light for filthy casuals (like myself).

Steam has a tabletop sim of it for playing online. $20 for the tabletop sim, download for gloomhaven is free...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1340508741
For those with an adequate number of friends but short on funds, its not a bad solution.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on June 19, 2018, 02:12:53 pm
I've heard Gloomhaven is good.  I know some people that play it, from the group of people I play some card games with.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 19, 2018, 06:08:16 pm
I haven't played Gloomhaven, but it's very popular with board gaming enthusiasts. It's a regular being compared with new game reviews, so it's a high bar for ranking games.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 19, 2018, 06:09:52 pm
Solomon Kane Kickstarter is getting interesting. The live videos with Leo, the creator with Mythic Games, are fun. He's so enthusiastic.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/solomon-kane/description
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on August 03, 2018, 01:56:27 am
Not sure if the game is any good, but man, the mini's in this one truly amaze, check it out. Be sure to scroll down to the Add-on's for the 75mm renders. Had it out with some piles of shit calling backers misogynistic. I was even being nice, but apparently you're either with the "movement" to obliterate feminine objectification or you're against it ... sigh ... fools don't see they're hurting their cause, not helping it by insulting people you don't know out of the gate.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limbominiatures/limbo-eternal-war/description

Here's a tasty one  :)

(https://i.imgur.com/9izbN9n.jpg)

Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on August 18, 2018, 11:55:31 am
More Limbo for your enjoyment. The top one might pass for something in PON like a Ciphrang, perhaps. I've been looking for a great devil figure for Asmodeus for D&D, think I've found him  :) ... with the time images, something maybe Dali could have cooked up if he ever designed a devil sculpt.

(https://i.imgur.com/nLY9cue.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kfLLFaF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/esYiD9J.jpg)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 21, 2018, 02:54:10 am
Calling all Canucks! Any chance one of you has some free time on your hands and live in/near Toronto? There's a creator of a game I backed who has gone dark. Appears he's sustained terrible tragedy in his family, but that was a year ago. I just need to know if the dude is going to finish up and deliver his game or not, not trying to hurt him. Let me know if any of you interested in doing a drive by and see if this cat is home and find out what the deal is.

Desmond Oku
9 Mountview Avenue
Toronto ON M6P 2L5
Canada

Here's the link to the KS if you're interested. Nobody likes losing money, but the real crime is this game may not be produced - the miniatures look wicked ... sniff sniff  :(

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dezoku/darkness-sabotage-the-board-game/description
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: themerchant on September 22, 2018, 05:33:32 pm
So you want me to go knock on his door and ask him what's happening with the start up, as someone posted his address online.  He'll fucking shoot me probably.

The guys name is Dez Oku, which seems made up by a lazy person to me.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 22, 2018, 11:51:25 pm
So you want me to go knock on his door and ask him what's happening with the start up, as someone posted his address online.  He'll fucking shoot me probably.

The guys name is Dez Oku, which seems made up by a lazy person to me.

The Merchant! I knew you would save me - you courageous fellow! That's right, you got it - knock on that fucker's door and ask him when he's going to deliver this goddamn game! I believe in you, brother. Take this piece of shit out! And yes, appears Dez is his name - the piece of shit was all over town when he was shopping his game, and then boo hoo, people died and goes radio silent - could be worse, he could be stuck in Earwa. Bull ... SHIT, I tell you! Bull shit. Don't be a pussy, Merchant and just get in your fucking car and drive over there - if you're too "busy", then get Bakker to fucking do it ... he ain't writing so has a lot of free time on his hands, I reckon. Anyways, fuck him, this adventure has you written all over it, Merchant! Stock up your hardware, if you have to and have Reservoir Dogs playing in your car and get er' done! You're awesome, I love ya. Now do it!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 27, 2018, 02:49:31 am
So you want me to go knock on his door and ask him what's happening with the start up, as someone posted his address online.  He'll fucking shoot me probably.

The guys name is Dez Oku, which seems made up by a lazy person to me.

The Merchant! I knew you would save me - you courageous fellow! That's right, you got it - knock on that fucker's door and ask him when he's going to deliver this goddamn game! I believe in you, brother. Take this piece of shit out! And yes, appears Dez is his name - the piece of shit was all over town when he was shopping his game, and then boo hoo, people died and goes radio silent - could be worse, he could be stuck in Earwa. Bull ... SHIT, I tell you! Bull shit. Don't be a pussy, Merchant and just get in your fucking car and drive over there - if you're too "busy", then get Bakker to fucking do it ... he ain't writing so has a lot of free time on his hands, I reckon. Anyways, fuck him, this adventure has you written all over it, Merchant! Stock up your hardware, if you have to and have Reservoir Dogs playing in your car and get er' done! You're awesome, I love ya. Now do it!

Ok, you haven't responded - that's ok if you don't to do it. Would you consider egging his house?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on September 27, 2018, 11:56:25 am
Ok, you haven't responded - that's ok if you don't to do it. Would you consider egging his house?

Well, he probably hasn't responded mostly because there is an ocean between him and Toronto.  But hey, I guess he might make a trip?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 27, 2018, 12:15:50 pm
Ok, you haven't responded - that's ok if you don't to do it. Would you consider egging his house?

Well, he probably hasn't responded mostly because there is an ocean between him and Toronto.  But hey, I guess he might make a trip?

Oh, I thought he lived near Toronto since he responded - I don't know where The Merchant lives. Sorry, Merchant! Not expecting you to purchase a flight to Toronto to take care of business - but would be very cool of you if you did  ;)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: themerchant on September 27, 2018, 03:01:40 pm
I was actually just checking that you wanted me to actually go to someone's house and ask them about stealing all monies. It sure looked that way but i thought best check before i label you crazier then me. :D
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 27, 2018, 05:48:01 pm
I was actually just checking that you wanted me to actually go to someone's house and ask them about stealing all monies. It sure looked that way but i thought best check before i label you crazier then me. :D

Yes - I would like someone to knock on his door, when he answers, say something to the effect, "hey man, you don't know me, but could you let me know if/when you intend to deliver Darkness Sabotage?". It can be a respectful exchange. Warning, do not try to hurt him or his property once you've been identified - the suggestion to egg his house was a joke. This is a request to anyone living near his home and would enjoy performing this task, not asking anyone to put themselves out or do anything they would not want to do.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: themerchant on September 27, 2018, 07:17:33 pm
I was actually just checking that you wanted me to actually go to someone's house and ask them about stealing all monies. It sure looked that way but i thought best check before i label you crazier then me. :D

Yes - I would like someone to knock on his door, when he answers, say something to the effect, "hey man, you don't know me, but could you let me know if/when you intend to deliver Darkness Sabotage?". It can be a respectful exchange. Warning, do not try to hurt him or his property once you've been identified - the suggestion to egg his house was a joke. This is a request to anyone living near his home and would enjoy performing this task, not asking anyone to put themselves out or do anything they would not want to do.

I got the Private message from you, we'll move this over to secured communication channel, once my fee has cleared.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on September 27, 2018, 08:16:13 pm
I was actually just checking that you wanted me to actually go to someone's house and ask them about stealing all monies. It sure looked that way but i thought best check before i label you crazier then me. :D

Yes - I would like someone to knock on his door, when he answers, say something to the effect, "hey man, you don't know me, but could you let me know if/when you intend to deliver Darkness Sabotage?". It can be a respectful exchange. Warning, do not try to hurt him or his property once you've been identified - the suggestion to egg his house was a joke. This is a request to anyone living near his home and would enjoy performing this task, not asking anyone to put themselves out or do anything they would not want to do.

I got the Private message from you, we'll move this over to secured communication channel, once my fee has cleared.

LMAO! Ok, sounds good, LOL!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: BeardFisher-King on October 01, 2018, 03:07:27 am
So you want me to go knock on his door and ask him what's happening with the start up, as someone posted his address online.  He'll fucking shoot me probably.

The guys name is Dez Oku, which seems made up by a lazy person to me.

The Merchant! I knew you would save me - you courageous fellow! That's right, you got it - knock on that fucker's door and ask him when he's going to deliver this goddamn game! I believe in you, brother. Take this piece of shit out! And yes, appears Dez is his name - the piece of shit was all over town when he was shopping his game, and then boo hoo, people died and goes radio silent - could be worse, he could be stuck in Earwa. Bull ... SHIT, I tell you! Bull shit. Don't be a pussy, Merchant and just get in your fucking car and drive over there - if you're too "busy", then get Bakker to fucking do it ... he ain't writing so has a lot of free time on his hands, I reckon. Anyways, fuck him, this adventure has you written all over it, Merchant! Stock up your hardware, if you have to and have Reservoir Dogs playing in your car and get er' done! You're awesome, I love ya. Now do it!

Funniest rant from the great TaoHorror in awhile!

Hey, I'd do the job myself, but we Amikans* now need a freaking passport to "visit" Canada. Effing bullshit!

*"Seventh Decimate" reference! (see Stephen R. Donaldson thread)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 01, 2018, 03:37:12 am
Thanks, Beard! Always have my back, appreciate it, brother!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 05, 2018, 01:53:37 pm
UPDATE!

Ok, hard to believe, but I actually by chance ( well, by my social media scanning effort ) connected with someone close with the Darkness Sabotage Kickstarter and they shared a lot of helpful information on what happened and current status. This individual appears legitimate, but can't say anything in the disembodied reality commonly known as the internet is 100% bonafide. Regardless, I'm satisfied with the information and calling off any of you getting your shhhoottgguunnss in order. Thank you for your kind consideration and here's hoping the Dez-ster gets back up off the mat and finishes this thing off.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 12, 2018, 01:02:40 pm
A denizen of Earwa?

(https://i.imgur.com/OlUuS5V.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/X0WEbNP.jpg)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 12, 2018, 07:52:52 pm
A denizen of Earwa?

I dig it.  Perhaps it is an illusion of the perspective, but his lower half seems disproportionate to the upper.  It might be one of those things where the real scale looks less real than an exaggerated one though...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 12, 2018, 08:09:00 pm
A denizen of Earwa?

I dig it.  Perhaps it is an illusion of the perspective, but his lower half seems disproportionate to the upper.  It might be one of those things where the real scale looks less real than an exaggerated one though...

You mean the Imp, not the dead human he's on, correct? not sure I see it, you mean the legs are too long/big?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 12, 2018, 08:46:26 pm
You mean the Imp, not the dead human he's on, correct? not sure I see it, you mean the legs are too long/big?

No, the human guy.  To me it looks like from where his knee bends to what I imagine the length of his thigh should be doesn't leave room for his hips/rest of his abdomen.  Again, maybe that is just me though...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 12, 2018, 09:20:05 pm
You mean the Imp, not the dead human he's on, correct? not sure I see it, you mean the legs are too long/big?

No, the human guy.  To me it looks like from where his knee bends to what I imagine the length of his thigh should be doesn't leave room for his hips/rest of his abdomen.  Again, maybe that is just me though...

You might be right - there is something off about the human, I struck it up to he's dead and when you're dead, you kinda collapse and flail, nothing keeping you upright and tight. Like sitting in that position doesn't look right or comfortable, but when dead, contortions can be more pronounced before rigor. But I'm no expert, my thinking there may be well off. Could be his scale is off.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on October 13, 2018, 04:49:55 pm
The miniatures for that game are amazing TH. I was looking at the kickstarter page - awesome!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 14, 2018, 03:36:35 am
The miniatures for that game are amazing TH. I was looking at the kickstarter page - awesome!

Glad you like them! I backed it and if/when I get them, I'll post pictures of them painted ( Best case June-2019  :( ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on November 25, 2018, 07:46:28 pm
Thought I would share something PON inspired miniatures considering the holidays and all  :)

(https://i.imgur.com/RUzXzUR.jpg)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on November 26, 2018, 02:26:48 pm
Wow, that is a really nice piece?  Where is it from?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on November 26, 2018, 06:18:59 pm
Wow, that is a really nice piece?  Where is it from?

Thank you! One of the miniatures from the board game, Rising Sun. Some cat in Poland painted it for me, does amazing work.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 05, 2018, 05:35:20 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/dLH5cBF.jpg)

New hobby space, under construction.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on December 05, 2018, 05:46:36 pm
Definitely satisfying to see it all set up. Lets hope you get to use it!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 06, 2018, 03:21:47 am
Ah, H, I concede some envy, that looks awesome. Now I just need my wife to discover the money I'm blowing on board games and miniatures and divorce me so I can get a space of my own and set up shop. I look forward to the day mutilating my first 100 paint jobs so I can get better.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 06, 2018, 01:41:29 pm
Ah, H, I concede some envy, that looks awesome. Now I just need my wife to discover the money I'm blowing on board games and miniatures and divorce me so I can get a space of my own and set up shop. I look forward to the day mutilating my first 100 paint jobs so I can get better.

This "desk" was already in the house we bought.  It was actually made for sewing, when the original owners made the house, so it was natural to just repurpose it.  I'm also rather "lucky" in that my wife is amenable to the use of space.

That being said, the space is good and nice, but the reality is there is just no time.  It's taken me over 3 months just to get that stuff out of boxes.  Let alone actually paint.  Which is a whole other beast.

Painting is "rewarding" but rather frustrating to me, because I have problems with "perfection."  And I don't mean just in the sense of results, but of process.  So, in miniatures painting, you will likely be aiming at layering and layering is specifically not an exact science.  That is, one layer purposely does not fully over the other.  This is the specific aim.  Yet, for me, I struggle with "allowing" one thing to "cover" another in an inexact way.  So, I have to fight my aim to be "perfectly exact" because that is not the point.

So, in a sense, I've found that painting is both a good deal easier than it seems, while also being a good deal harder than it seems.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 06, 2018, 03:41:08 pm
So, in a sense, I've found that painting is both a good deal easier than it seems, while also being a good deal harder than it seems.

When I started painting them a very long time ago, I was taking a different approach and it seemed to be working well for me. Practice - I purposely painted fairly quickly to get my intuition strengthen before objective perfection ( some call it "muscle memory" ) ... it was working well for me, I was getting descent pretty quickly with dry brushing and the like. I purchased a bunch of mini's I didn't care about to cut my teeth on. So if/when I get back to it, I'm going to take that approach, grab a pile of miniatures and get going. After 10 or so, stop, watch some online tutorials and do another 10 and continue to instinctively understand how thin the paint should be ( before understanding why that thickness works ), etc. At some point, when I have my bones, slow down and perfect my craft. Anyways, that's the plan - everyone has their own path to commanding skills. The art to getting good at art is learning when to take time to improve vs just moving on to avoid paralyzation. If it were easy, it wouldn't be fun.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 06, 2018, 04:40:31 pm
Yeah, one good thing is that there are so many good YouTube videos now on techniques and the like.  When I started there were scant few that were really worth looking at.  Also, just dissemination of techniques and the like is so much better now.

For example, when I started in something like 2008, despite looking at many, many things, all you could really find were people advocating black primer, now-a-days, you can find way more information about the benefits of black, white, grey primers, zenithal techniques, and so on.  It's really opened things up to let you explore more things realistically.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: themerchant on December 10, 2018, 12:09:46 pm
I used to paint warhammer models when i was younger, the one abiding memory i have is brushes with fewer hairs being more expensive.

I used white and black primer depending on the chapter i was painting. Mostly 40k
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 10, 2018, 01:10:51 pm
I used to paint warhammer models when i was younger, the one abiding memory i have is brushes with fewer hairs being more expensive.

I used white and black primer depending on the chapter i was painting. Mostly 40k

Well, it more depends on what those hairs are made from than how many there are.  Kolinsky sable brushes will be expensive no matter what.  Synthetic brushes are a great deal cheaper.  Of course, real sable ones are "better" but not necessarily in proportion to their cost.  Not to mention, any metallic paints will destroy real sable brushes.

Unless you are really good and really know what you are doing, expensive brushes are nearly a complete waste of money.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: themerchant on December 10, 2018, 02:14:16 pm
I used to paint warhammer models when i was younger, the one abiding memory i have is brushes with fewer hairs being more expensive.

I used white and black primer depending on the chapter i was painting. Mostly 40k

Well, it more depends on what those hairs are made from than how many there are.  Kolinsky sable brushes will be expensive no matter what.  Synthetic brushes are a great deal cheaper.  Of course, real sable ones are "better" but not necessarily in proportion to their cost.  Not to mention, any metallic paints will destroy real sable brushes.

Unless you are really good and really know what you are doing, expensive brushes are nearly a complete waste of money.

it was ones for doing eyes. this was also in the early 1990's.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 10, 2018, 02:21:47 pm
it was ones for doing eyes. this was also in the early 1990's.

Ah, OK, I see what you are saying.  Probably like a 00 size or something.  Yeah, there are easier ways now-a-days though, you can even just use something like a paint pen or something rather than spending so much on a tiny brush.

In reality, if you have a good 1, you can probably do the same as you could with a 00 or smaller, but it's more about having your paint the right consistency to work with in that case.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on December 13, 2018, 11:21:49 pm
Post Noise Marines if you got any.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 14, 2018, 01:24:43 pm
Post Noise Marines if you got any.

I used to, but I never got to paint any of them and I sold them a while back when money was bad...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on December 16, 2018, 04:05:34 pm
Dang it, that's a shame. Noise marines are ace.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 28, 2018, 12:19:52 pm
So I used meetup.com to meet up with some people I don't know to board game  ;D

We played Descent 2.0 - my first time playing and we had a lot of fun. From my understanding, Descent is one of the better games to come out since 2000. We played the Labyrinthine expansion and we defeated the OL ( Over Lord ) in the first Act ( we're playing Campaign ). One thing kinda torqued me though - the miniatures are like 25mm - 28mm scale ( which is fine ), but they had exceptional detail ( which is great ) - my problem is I've purchased a few games over the past few years ( much newer than Descent ), but the miniatures are significantly inferior to quality ( of material ) and detail - it's like board gaming went backwards for a few years, but with higher prices, of course. Well, fuck. But it was very cool to get back into board gaming and I was lucky as the group we had was awesome, very nice cool people.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 28, 2018, 04:31:18 pm
That's neat.  Good to actually get to play the games we keep buying!

But I think it's the case that the whole Kickstarter funding thing has really flooded the market for these sorts of "stand-alone" games.  It means the quality is really going to be uneven, I think.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 28, 2018, 06:28:17 pm
That's neat.  Good to actually get to play the games we keep buying!

But I think it's the case that the whole Kickstarter funding thing has really flooded the market for these sorts of "stand-alone" games.  It means the quality is really going to be uneven, I think.

Yeah, it's all over the place from Wow to Ow. I guess having the means to buy games that suck isn't really much of a problem, but still sucks  :)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 28, 2018, 07:37:40 pm
Yeah, it's all over the place from Wow to Ow. I guess having the means to buy games that suck isn't really much of a problem, but still sucks  :)

Well, at my current pace, I have enough models for my entire lifetime to build, paint, and play with, because right now I have roughly a half an hour a week when I can do anything.  So, I'm really trying hard to not buy stuff I have pretty much no chance to ever use...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on December 28, 2018, 07:56:13 pm
Yeah, it's all over the place from Wow to Ow. I guess having the means to buy games that suck isn't really much of a problem, but still sucks  :)

Well, at my current pace, I have enough models for my entire lifetime to build, paint, and play with, because right now I have roughly a half an hour a week when I can do anything.  So, I'm really trying hard to not buy stuff I have pretty much no chance to ever use...

Smart. Wise. Self Control. Impressive, H! That said, don't give up hope  ;)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 02, 2019, 02:09:11 pm
Smart. Wise. Self Control. Impressive, H! That said, don't give up hope  ;)

Well, I didn't say I was doing it successfully though, haha.

My birthday is coming up, our oldest overheard my mother-in-law asking my wife what she should get me.  He told her "paint, that is all he buys."  So, I guess I am doing OK getting my hobby area set up.  Got my airburush booth set up, but still a good bit of work before I can really do much of anything, although I did manage to build one miniature I've had laying around for years.  Only to remember how awful Games Workshop resin is...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 02, 2019, 03:34:59 pm
I ended up buying Gloomhaven for myself. Comes with at least one miniature for each player character class, which is like a dozen or so.

How much would it cost to pay someone to paint a one inch tall mini?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 02, 2019, 06:52:45 pm
I ended up buying Gloomhaven for myself. Comes with at least one miniature for each player character class, which is like a dozen or so.

How much would it cost to pay someone to paint a one inch tall mini?

Well, first decide how well you want it painted, because the prices will vary widely if you want it painted to something like a display quality or just to a "tabletop" quality.

Check out his guy, who is in Poland and very good (and he shows the different qualities and the prices for each): http://www.unlimitedcolours.com.pl/index.php/commission

TH knows a shit load more about commissions than I do though.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 02, 2019, 08:28:00 pm
I ended up buying Gloomhaven for myself. Comes with at least one miniature for each player character class, which is like a dozen or so.

How much would it cost to pay someone to paint a one inch tall mini?

Well, first decide how well you want it painted, because the prices will vary widely if you want it painted to something like a display quality or just to a "tabletop" quality.

Check out his guy, who is in Poland and very good (and he shows the different qualities and the prices for each): http://www.unlimitedcolours.com.pl/index.php/commission

TH knows a shit load more about commissions than I do though.
It's complex - because much of how to choose a painter comes down to what you like more than how good they are. Poland is exploding with board games and miniatures and painting, some very good painters there. Russia is too. My favorite painters are Polish and Russian, they are amazing. And they charge less than the West does ( West = America, UK and West Europe ). I found this person in China who does excellent work very reasonably. I'm happy to share my complete experience, but warning you it's a bit lengthy. Or I can cut to the chase and share my painters I use. I'm not familiar with the one H shared, but the fact he/she is from Poland is a good sign they're damn good and won't fleece you on price. Another consideration is logistics - if you're in the USA, USA to USA shipping will be tracked and fast. White Metal Games is a pro outfit, Caleb is a joy to work with and his prices are good ( about $100/figure for high quality for a 1 inch figure, but you can get one lower level for $80 or so and it may make little difference ). I use my guy in Poland because he does better quality for same money - but, the logistics are jacked. I've had packages "disappear" for 2 months and then finally makes it in fine shape - and I've had packages make it there in 10 days and shipping to Poland is expensive ( so $10 to USA would be $25 bucks minimum and $50 if you want faster shipping to Poland ). If you just want them to look really good and don't need every detail painted, White Metal Games is the way to go if you live in USA. Red Piano in Oregon is awesome, I would say use him as he's better than White Metal, about same price and still in USA, but he's now embarking on designing miniatures and won't be painting them in 2019 ( or so he says, he could be getting tired of painting my stuff ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 02, 2019, 09:03:26 pm
Do share more :) I'm interested in your experience.

I can see, now, the appeal of painting your own, as the price per piece is (can be) very high.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 02, 2019, 09:33:10 pm
Here is a picture someone at another board posted of work he had done by that guy:
(https://i.imgur.com/4FjU2Cr.jpg)

Note that none of the details are actually on those miniatures, they are all old, flat metals, so all the heraldry and details are freehand, or whatever he does.  I don't know if that is "Level 4" work or not, but the guy has talent.

Almost anyone you commission worth commissioning is going to be a bit of a pain, being the wait or whatever, it's just the nature of things to a degree, I think.

If you do it yourself, you get the "fun" of a hobby.  Honestly, half-decent jobs are actually fairly easy to achieve yourself, but if you want something really nice, it can be hard if you don't enjoy the learning process.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 02, 2019, 10:03:48 pm
Wow, those are pretty, H! I like his stuff  :)

Soooooooo - I've lit a pile of money on fire "vetting" painters, so you don't have to lose any of yours  :D

I'll break this up so it's not one gigantic post.

Avoid:

WonderCat ( France ): it pains me to steer people away from them as they are the nicest people on the planet, but they are too expensive for what you get ( 200 pounds for a KDM 32mm figure! ), they're too slow and they don't package the miniatures well ( so definitely don't send them resin as you'll get a pile of pieces shipped backed to you ).

Toad Painting ( Canada ): He's good, but bad business. He upped the prices on my AFTER he painted some, I called him out on it and he discounted, but I had him return the rest - he went 6 months no communication and no work - anyways, he doesn't really have a "studio", just some kid who likes to paint miniatures competitively and put up a website to make him look like a pro. Not good enough, dog slow and jacked at business.

Iron Keep Studio ( Poland ): This guy is awesome, great prices with great freehand, but he's very slow. If you don't mind the wait, he's gold. But since there are other people out there who do the work, I say don't bother with Gregor here. That said, his work for me was fucking awesome and priced right.

Shoshie's Magnificent Painting ( USA ): Shoshie is awesome, but I'm not using her any more. She's expensive ( $200 for typical 32mm resin ) and exceptional and she works ( so you're not waiting ). That said, I don't think she has a great eye for color. My man in Poland charges a lot less, he's not "technically" as good as Shoshie, but I love his work and he's a true artist with color. So do you want technically strong, more realistic looking work and have the money, then go with Shoshie. If you want something more "art", than save some money and go with an Eastern European painter who'll make your miniatures look fucked up ( good! ).

The Spiraling Cadaver ( USA ) - good painter, good prices, but you have to like his style - everything is OSL, just not my thing. But he is popular and doesn't charge much ( OSL is fast to do ), so if you dig that look, he's a find.

Duff Paint ( UK ): He's a master and his prices are very good ( about $80 for 32mm ), but he's dog slow. I sent him some more since his first batch to me was so good and reasonably priced, but he's had the second batch for 6 months and hasn't even started. Fuck.

Ringil ( Russia ): The best painter I've used to date, she is a jedi of miniature painting, but expensive and slow ( she's not really a commission painter, I had to talk her into it ). Took her a year to paint 17 miniatures, but wow, they're good - much better than Soshie, but about as expensive.

Red Piano ( USA ): Kenny is a find, exceptional work for reasonable prices, but he's stopping now to work on other stuff.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 02, 2019, 10:12:35 pm
Consider:

So the trick is to find someone's style you like, can afford and they're not a pain in the ass to work with ( like they're too slow, or don't package well, bizarre communication, prices change on you ). This isn't easy. Here are the painters I use and will continue to do so. Understand, you may not like any of these people's work. Let me know if you want to see examples of what they've done and I'll post them.

Victor/OperStrike ( Russia ): This dude is amazing for the money. Don't send him anything that has to be glued together as he's not the best at packaging - but for pre-made figures ( like in your Gloomhaven game ), wow - he's not the best, but he has great eye for color and is dog cheap - and he busts his ass, I don't have to wait long ( 2 months ) to get them. He charges about $30 for a 32mm figure.

Łukasz Kam/Figurkowo ( Poland ): My favorite - charges about $100 for a 32mm figure, works hard, amazing colors. He doesn't freehand much like the guy H shared, but not sure what that other painter charges either.

ChengYun Chen/Wargamepainting ( China ): You can see this guy's stuff on eBay - wow, extremely good, great colors and great pricing, $40 - $70 for a 32mm figure.

Bohun: hee hee, I had to throw this guy in here to fuck with you. I've not used him, he charges $500 - $1000 for a figure, but fuck he's mad good. He uses Patreon and actually has Patreons. If you Patreon him, he shares videos on how he does it, crazy good stuff.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 03, 2019, 02:02:06 pm
Hmm. $30 to $100+ for a single figure is an interesting price range. Gloomhaven only has 18ish figures so its not like a full army, but I'm not spending $2000, let alone $600 for the low range to do all of them. At least not all at once lol. Would probably have to sell all my books ;) . TBH, those prices seem reasonable - creating something is hard work and "exposure bucks" don't put food on the table - especially given the range of work and talents.

I saw several inevitable "just do it yourself, its not that hard" posts around the internet.

What's the startup cost for painting your own for some minimal setup that gets you enough to do something basic but acceptable.
I mean, the figures are gray plastic, I imagine some modicum of color would go a long way.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 03, 2019, 03:07:18 pm
Hmm. $30 to $100+ for a single figure is an interesting price range. Gloomhaven only has 18ish figures so its not like a full army, but I'm not spending $2000, let alone $600 for the low range to do all of them. At least not all at once lol. Would probably have to sell all my books ;) . TBH, those prices seem reasonable - creating something is hard work and "exposure bucks" don't put food on the table - especially given the range of work and talents.

I saw several inevitable "just do it yourself, its not that hard" posts around the internet.

What's the startup cost for painting your own for some minimal setup that gets you enough to do something basic but acceptable.
I mean, the figures are gray plastic, I imagine some modicum of color would go a long way.

Yes, it's expensive, but reasonable considering how much work they put into painting this stuff. Depends on how many colors you want to have in your arsenal, H would be better to comment on this, but I would say about $100 in paints and brushes, that's bare bones but enough for 18 figures.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 03, 2019, 04:05:50 pm
Yes, it's expensive, but reasonable considering how much work they put into painting this stuff. Depends on how many colors you want to have in your arsenal, H would be better to comment on this, but I would say about $100 in paints and brushes, that's bare bones but enough for 18 figures.

$100 in paint is a good bit and if you don't want to get crazy with things, can do a whole lot, especially when you start mixing them.  Vallejo hobby paints are 3 bucks a piece, so you could easily get 90 colors, which is a really large number.  The good metallics cost more, but you can easily stay under that kind of budget because you really don't need 8 shades of off white, or 9 shades of purple, and other absurd things I own.  You also do not need expensive brushes at all.  In fact, the cheap ones are likely better, because they will be synthetic and can take more abuse.

The thing is, it really isn't that hard.  But it's a process.  Like anything else, if you don't like the process, aren't interested in the process, hate the process, then you will hate it and not be good at it.  Trust me though, if I can get half decent results and my hard-eye coordination/vision is laughably bad, then anyone can.

It's kind of like math.  If you take the time, learn the basics, you can do all sorts of things.  But again, only if you take that time to learn the basics and then actually practice it.  If you hate it, if you don't want to do it, you won't ever get good results though.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on January 03, 2019, 04:27:46 pm
And to add, the reason learning to paint these miniatures is "not hard" to learn for anybody is because it's 3D painting/coloring between the lines. It's only perspective that this activity seems different than coloring books - it's no different, there are lines there for you to make it easy/easier than painting something from nothing - the sculpture are the lines. Even dry brushing looks good if that's all you do ( Base coat + minuscule amount of paint on your brush and quickly glazing over the texture of the mini, allowing the highlights to grab the paint - essentially just dab paint on the brush and wipe the brush on paper until no more paint comes off and you're good to go ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 03, 2019, 07:37:32 pm
And to add, the reason learning to paint these miniatures is "not hard" to learn for anybody is because it's 3D painting/coloring between the lines. It's only perspective that this activity seems different than coloring books - it's no different, there are lines there for you to make it easy/easier than painting something from nothing - the sculpture are the lines. Even dry brushing looks good if that's all you do ( Base coat + minuscule amount of paint on your brush and quickly glazing over the texture of the mini, allowing the highlights to grab the paint - essentially just dab paint on the brush and wipe the brush on paper until no more paint comes off and you're good to go ).

Right, this is the "modern" Games Workshop approach, even to the point that their paints are specifically pre-thined, labeled and formulated to specifically clue you in to how to use them.  Base, then Shade, then Layer, then Edge.  They even have specifically formulated Drybrushing paint for those cases.

Of course you can save yourself a bunch of money by just learning what the difference is and buying other brand paint for the purpose.  You don't need to really be an artist by any stretch of the imagination to get decent results, just learn practical application of some general principles.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 04, 2019, 02:05:27 pm
Must decide if I want this as a hobby, lol.

Perhaps easier than bookbinding, which really didnt work out.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 04, 2019, 02:43:53 pm
Must decide if I want this as a hobby, lol.

Perhaps easier than bookbinding, which really didnt work out.

I think that is a near certainty.  It's also far more iterative, in the sense of you can make small incremental progress and still have results.  It's also likely "cheaper" but you can scale it to your desire.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on January 07, 2019, 05:12:37 pm
Material cost per object would likely be less assuming paint can be used on more than one or two small figures. The biggest factor probably being the leather. Even a sheet of cheap leather is comparatively pricey and can only be used once - all other costs like glue/sandpaper/brushes/etc are likely similar.

Got a quote from the one you mention H. For level 2 detail on the figures, $35 each. Cheap, given the market, but still pricey for upwards of 20 figures.

I will have to consider options - and continue to do nothing.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on January 07, 2019, 06:18:37 pm
Material cost per object would likely be less assuming paint can be used on more than one or two small figures. The biggest factor probably being the leather. Even a sheet of cheap leather is comparatively pricey and can only be used once - all other costs like glue/sandpaper/brushes/etc are likely similar.

Yeah, most hobby paints come in 12-17 ml bottles, that is a fairly large amount, easily enough to do 20-30 maybe even more miniatures, of course depending on how much you need to cover on each.  The material cost per mini is pretty low, but the time investment could be high, depending on what level of standard you want to get to.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on April 12, 2019, 09:06:12 pm
Well, finally sort of got around to doing something...

So, here is something of a "color study" on a Necron (well, half of one)

(https://i.imgur.com/phBBxCY.jpg)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Madness on April 13, 2019, 12:21:16 pm
Very nice, H. Kids thought it was neat too.

I always liked the story behind the Necrons.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 13, 2019, 09:17:27 pm
Well, finally sort of got around to doing something...

So, here is something of a "color study" on a Necron (well, half of one)

Nice work, thanks for sharing :)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on April 29, 2019, 12:07:34 pm
As it so happens, most of my families and friends have a lot of board games. I thought maybe a good gift idea, rather than buying a game they might not want (or worse, already own), it would be cool to get some upgraded pieces. Something maybe of nicer material like metal or stone, or a nice hard wood, or even just sturdier resins than the cheap plastic/cardboard that can come with games.

I found campaingcoins.com , which has some great stuff. Metal meeples and sets of coins. The coins, which they have several different sets for a variety of games, can be used rather generically for lots of games, so I thought that would be a good idea. But, I got to thinking, does anyone know where these types of things can be found, or/or made? Custom game token, or upgrade kits/packs for either specific games or just nice tokens that can be used generically for lots of stuff?

This isn't quite the same as Miniatures, since clearly those are all game specific, but more like generic minis that might be used for multiple boardgames.

Any thoughts on whether people want this kind of thing, or suggestions on where to look?

Edit:
https://campaigncoins.com/coins/starter-sets/
For the curious, these are the best coins I could find, and they have nice looking metal Meeples as well. Found them via Wyrmwood, so you know they're good, and from my research these are probably the nicest sets of coins out there.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 29, 2019, 06:32:27 pm
Yeah, gameboard pieces and even gameboards themselves - all fair game on this thread ( really anything is ).

I don't know much about upgrading the components themselves. I've pimped out my Lobotomy game which is just putting all of the cards in plastic holders and using some nice small plastic cups/lids for chits and whatnot - essentially just organizing the game with some protection. But I've not gone the route of replacing components, but I'm guessing there are places around that provide this sort of thing, I'll ask around.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 29, 2019, 06:47:45 pm
Here's a list of board games I've played over the past few months. Feel free to chime in any you've played with commentary.

Epic Tiny Galaxies - good game. Impressive given how much game there is to such a small board with a modest amount of components. I won and had fun, would play it again. Strategic, area of control type game.

Mansions of Madness - dice chucker, medium to high randomness, drenched in theme, dungeon crawler-ish, Ameritrash. I love horror, so I liked it before even playing it. It is fun, it's a semi/co-op. Having the app is immensely helpful and fun to use. We lost, but one player won since they went insane ( if you go insane, you get a secret objective, which was, in this case, if we fail then he wins ). Not super awesome, but it was fun to play and I enjoyed not competing with the other players for once.

Viticulture - worker placement, pretty darn good game, nice balance and fun to play. Played twice, lost twice, but came in 2nd this last game we played. Basically plant grapes, make wine, bottle and sell it. Sounds simple and boring, but it's highly competitive and strategic making it a lot of fun trying to figure out best approach with the frustration of being cock-blocked, etc. Warning, worker placement games bring out the best in people :P

Sythe - the funniest game I've played with my current group so far, but I love the art, so maybe I need to play it a few more times before I make this statement. Area of control with combat - just had a blast making mechs, hee hee! I lost, but had a lot of fun. Asymmetric, but balanced, pretty impressive game.

Terra-forming Mars - well, this is the grand daddy of gaming ( many think this is the greatest board game ever made ). It is complex, but a lot of fun. Steep learning curve, but not insurmountable, once you get your sea-legs then you can play it just fine ( i.e. you don't have to keep going back to the rule book,  just need to get it all in your head how to play your cards ). This is an engine building game with some area of control. I've played it once, playing it again this coming weekend - it is fun, but want to reserve judgement on this until I get better at it. It has expansions for which we're adding this weekend, so my head may hurt a bit. Not much cock-blocking, really - more of how well you play your cards.

Catan - very easy, basic game to play. Great game to introduce to non-board gamers. It's a fun game, easy to learn - good bit of randomness to it, but there's strategy as well. Makes for a fun party game.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on April 29, 2019, 10:48:36 pm
Someone responded to me in FB and says Etsy and TheBrokenToken.com are both good places to get upgraded components.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on April 30, 2019, 12:17:33 am
Bunny Kingdom - This is a fantastic game. Its an ... area of control? ... game. The artwork is great and the pieces are well done. Lots of strategy to building your kingdom, but the game makes it feel close until the very end so everyone wants to keep playing. This is important for my usual group because there's almost always someone who runs away with the win.

Bring Your Own Book - This is a funny little party game where you grab a random book and Apples to Apples style, someone reads a card prompt and you have 1 minutes to find a quote from the book. It can be fun, as far as these types of games go.

Dominion (with Intrigue, Seaside, Empires) - Been playing a bit of this. Classic, maybe The Classic, deck builder game. Build a deck, snag as many points as you can before the game ends. Tons of cards, which makes for a lot of variety even with just the base game and 1 or 2 of the dozen-ish expansions.

Photosynthesis - Tree building game. Great themes, nicely made pieces, you grow trees through the seasons. Honestly, played once, won once, and there's not enough deep strategy for me to want to play it again. Its functionally a solvable game and you have near perfect information which limits the permutations a lot. Still fun once or twice though.

Gloomhaven - Played the first scenario 3 times, lost twice, one the last one. This dungeon crawler is like a video game made into a boardgame. Its fun with the right group, but too intense for my group.

Spirits of the Wild - This is a fun one. Simple, easy to set up, easy to explain, and some really interesting emergent gameplay with high level players. Plays 2, maybe 15 to 20 minutes for a short game. Could take 30 minutes+ if you really agonize over it. Highly recommended.

Viticulture - That's a fun one! There a lot of variety to this that makes it seem worth many, many plays. I've only played it twice, won the second time. Unfortunately you can get dealt a bad hand at the start that makes catching up very difficult, or gaining and holding and early lead. Still very much recommended though.

Plenty of others to post! I don't win many games myself, but I have friends that own tons so I'm often playing new stuff, especially around the holidays. I'll list off a few more later

ETA:

Scyth - Very complex war game. Basically a alternate history post-WWI setting with mechs, you compete to conquer part of Russia. Its a lot of fun, but there's a ton of rules. It took nearly 6 hours for 4 of us to play through it one time (with two of us being new).

Spirit Island - YES. This game is awesome, and since good cooperative games can be difficult to find, I was very pleased with this. You are spirits trying to stop the colonization of your island. There's 8 spirits, and the game only plays up to 4, plus many mechanics that are recommended to add one at a time to keep difficulty/complexity lower for new people. This makes it easy to bring in new folks, and allows a lot of ramping up of difficulty each time you win.

Terraforming Mars - I agree with TH's assesment above. Its quite a fun game! I like the theme, the flavor text on the cards is fun, and there's a lot of great details on the artwork. Definitely a lot of mechanics to keep track of, but ultimately not too terrible to wrap your mind around. Less going on than Scythe, for example. I managed a win on my first go, I think I got lucky with a couple cards early, but it seems you can win without needing to absolutely understand every mechanic. Just knowing the end game condition and that you can spread yourself too thinly to be effective is enough to eek out a victory. This is true for most Engine Building games though, so no surprise there.

Azul - Easy to set up, easy to play, quick (multiple games in an hour), plays well with 4... and plenty of strategy despite all that. Definitely recommended.

Castle Panic! - This is a fun cooperative game where you defend your castle against an army of incoming Orcs, goblins, and other creatures. Plays 4, is pretty fast (maybe 60-90 minutes), and is usually well balanced to where you find yourself close to losing but not necessarily overwhelmed. Short and longer play setups are present, and from what I've  gathered the longer setups tend to be much more difficult.

Wingspan - is a resource management / engine builder. You get a player mat that has different biomes, and your goal is to get points by placing/growing various birds on your mat. The artwork is brilliant and pleasing, and it seems to be a good engine builder with simple mechanics which can lead you down a couple different paths to victory.

Ex Libris - you play as the curator of a town library. You compete with other players for the best/rarest books, trying to impress the city inspector who assigns points based on size, stability, variety, rarity, and theme. Basically you collect cards in various ways, arrange them in alphabetical order as best you can. Its pretty fun, a worker replacement game, and the book titles (of where there are some 600+) are pretty witty and brilliant making it fun to read them.

Bargain Quest - though only about 15% of it as we ran out of time. You are a shop owner trying to sell wares to heroes, who then go out adventuring with your gear. If they live and kill monsters, you get fame, and they get gold which they can then bring back for more gear. They can also die, in which case you get no fame. The dead heroes are rotated out with new ones. Each turn you compete with the other players to attract 1 hero to your shop. This one was quite fun, and I wish I played more of it. There's something of a bidding phase each turn where you compete mildly to grab the best customer who can buy your stuff, which means plenty of interactions with other players without be overly competitive.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on May 08, 2019, 04:53:27 pm
Omg, this is hilarious! I mean, well, no - it's not funny at all - it's tragic and completely fucked up and criminal and terrible - but it's hilarious that a dude who just started a Kickstarter for his card game is being called out by people in the KS comments ( anyone can back a KS for just a $1 and that gives you access to making comments - so if someone is fucking up a KS, they get flamed as all fuck in their own KS comments, it's quite the entertainment, let me tell ya ). Anyways, this piece of shit is being bashed in his KS comments for all sorts of fucked up stuff like possible IP infringement ( apparently he got the "go" to do this from a message to GoT producer in LinkedIn ) and his personal life madness internet footprint is being shared as well. Here is the link to the KS and here is youtube video of him playing a video game whereby near the end he is abusing his child and gets into a fight with his wife. Of course, he's fucked up and I'm fucked up for sharing, I in no way think abusing a child is funny and he should go to prison for it - but it is hilarious all of this "documentation" on the creator is being shared ... so I'm sharing with you'all as well  :D

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1991325785/the-game-of-thrones-card-game/comments

https://youtu.be/C7uu8VVhCP0?t=28421
 - Child abuse begins at 7:53:45
 - Fight with the wife begins at 8:01:35
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on June 13, 2019, 07:04:16 pm

Scyth - Very complex war game. Basically a alternate history post-WWI setting with mechs, you compete to conquer part of Russia. Its a lot of fun, but there's a ton of rules. It took nearly 6 hours for 4 of us to play through it one time (with two of us being new).

Spirit Island - YES. This game is awesome, and since good cooperative games can be difficult to find, I was very pleased with this. You are spirits trying to stop the colonization of your island. There's 8 spirits, and the game only plays up to 4, plus many mechanics that are recommended to add one at a time to keep difficulty/complexity lower for new people. This makes it easy to bring in new folks, and allows a lot of ramping up of difficulty each time you win.

added this to my earlier post.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 14, 2019, 01:47:18 am

Scyth - Very complex war game. Basically a alternate history post-WWI setting with mechs, you compete to conquer part of Russia. Its a lot of fun, but there's a ton of rules. It took nearly 6 hours for 4 of us to play through it one time (with two of us being new).

Sythe is a winner, love that game, one of my favorites. I dunno, something about building Mechs, even though they're represented by meeples, is a lot of fun. Impressively balanced for an asymmetric design.

I would LOVE for 6 of us to get together to play Twilight Imperium 4 - NOW THAT IS A GAME! Pretty fricken fun, but you need a lot of players for it to get really jacked.

If dungeon crawlers are your thing, I enjoyed Mansions of Madness, but think LOTR is a bit more fun. I've been playing Descent and while it's been fun, I don't know - it's too much like chess ( if you fuck up once, it's over ), not really into that. The Dark Overlord has been kicking our ass, so losing so much is a buzzkill.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on June 14, 2019, 12:11:02 pm
Yeah that was a big part of the problem with Gloomhaven - too difficult, not enough interest. I like the idea of persistant/legacy games that change as you play, but unfortunately I don't think I have the right group to play them.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TLEILAXU on July 04, 2019, 07:15:55 am
I sometimes browse the games workshop website while taking breaks from other stuff and I noticed they've got some new Slaanesh models. The Keeper of Secrets looks marvellous https://www.games-workshop.com/en-DK/Keeper-of-Secrets-2019
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on July 05, 2019, 11:35:21 am
I sometimes browse the games workshop website while taking breaks from other stuff and I noticed they've got some new Slaanesh models. The Keeper of Secrets looks marvellous https://www.games-workshop.com/en-DK/Keeper-of-Secrets-2019

Yeah, it is a nice kit, I'd have gotten one, but the price and the fact that I don't have time to build it/paint it/use it in the game has held me back.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on July 30, 2019, 08:21:56 pm
If you preorder the rerelease of the Dune board game, you get free shipping and some game markers.

(https://i.imgur.com/jO2lOBR.jpg)

(Yeah, it says at the show, but you can preorder online and get the markers too.)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on July 30, 2019, 11:39:05 pm
If you preorder the rerelease of the Dune board game, you get free shipping and some game markers.

(Yeah, it says at the show, but you can preorder online and get the markers too.)

If this is a reprint of the Avalon Hill original - man, this is one fun game. Thanks for the heads up :) ... will any pre-order online from any online shop get them or from a specific site?
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on July 31, 2019, 11:49:52 am
If this is a reprint of the Avalon Hill original - man, this is one fun game. Thanks for the heads up :) ... will any pre-order online from any online shop get them or from a specific site?

Yes, it's a reprint of that game.  From what I understand, it is a pretty good game, expensive and somewhat hard to find on the secondary market.

The preorder must be direct from GF9, my fault, I meant to put a link to their shop to preorder (https://www.flamesofwar.com/gf9online_store.aspx?CategoryID=13814&fbclid=IwAR0Zxb4KCIe9JQn4HdFsH8e52vMz10hlA_P6W2DieGStR7hbUHjdvrrSbf4).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on July 31, 2019, 04:49:29 pm
If this is a reprint of the Avalon Hill original - man, this is one fun game. Thanks for the heads up :) ... will any pre-order online from any online shop get them or from a specific site?

Yes, it's a reprint of that game.  From what I understand, it is a pretty good game, expensive and somewhat hard to find on the secondary market.

The preorder must be direct from GF9, my fault, I meant to put a link to their shop to preorder (https://www.flamesofwar.com/gf9online_store.aspx?CategoryID=13814&fbclid=IwAR0Zxb4KCIe9JQn4HdFsH8e52vMz10hlA_P6W2DieGStR7hbUHjdvrrSbf4).

It is a very good game, I played it when I was young. They did a really nice job of balancing something that is so asymmetrical. It's funny as I read up on this, it's mentioned that Twilight Imperium was "the answer" to there having no Dune reprint for so long. I played Twilight Imperium this year for the first time and was thinking at the time that this was the first game since Dune with such a beautifully designed political component to the game, not knowing there was an ode to Dune during it's design. Twilight Imperium is the funnest game I played this year and I played about 10 new games ( all the current greats: Sythe, Terraforming Mars, Mansions of Madness, Lords of the Rings, Descent, Viticulture ... but not Gloomhaven yet ). I would put Dune in same class as all of these gems - those old Avalon Hill games were expertly designed, making them gems still today.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on July 31, 2019, 04:52:10 pm
TH, I played terraforming mars. Quite a lot of fun! Though of course, winning is always fun lol. Terraforming Mars - I agree with TH's assesment above. Its quite a fun game! I like the theme, the flavor text on the cards is fun, and there's a lot of great details on the artwork. Definitely a lot of mechanics to keep track of, but ultimately not too terrible to wrap your mind around. Less going on than Scythe, for example. I managed a win on my first go, I think I got lucky with a couple cards early, but it seems you can win without needing to absolutely understand every mechanic. Just knowing the end game condition and that you can spread yourself too thinly to be effective is enough to eek out a victory. This is true for most Engine Building games though, so no surprise there.

Azul - Easy to set up, easy to play, quick (multiple games in an hour), plays well with 4... and plenty of strategy despite all that. Definitely recommended.

Castle Panic! - This is a fun cooperative game where you defend your castle against an army of incoming Orcs, goblins, and other creatures. Plays 4, is pretty fast (maybe 60-90 minutes), and is usually well balanced to where you find yourself close to losing but not necessarily overwhelmed. Short and longer play setups are present, and from what I've  gathered the longer setups tend to be much more difficult.

---


That Dune game looks entertaining. Not sure I want to spend $50 on a preorder, but its an old game that appears well loved... and bonus tokens is a pretty nice perk for simply paying retail.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on August 01, 2019, 12:58:39 pm
I doubt it, but on the off chance there are some MechWarrior/BattleTech fans here that haven't seen this yet, I'll post it.

BattleTech: Clan Invasion Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/description) is over 1.2 million dollars right now.  Plastic redesigns of Clan and Inner Sphere mechs, plus lots of other add ons.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on August 02, 2019, 01:17:24 pm
I doubt it, but on the off chance there are some MechWarrior/BattleTech fans here that haven't seen this yet, I'll post it.

BattleTech: Clan Invasion Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/description) is over 1.2 million dollars right now.  Plastic redesigns of Clan and Inner Sphere mechs, plus lots of other add ons.

I've not played it. 1.3 million KS, impressive :)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on August 02, 2019, 01:28:48 pm
I've not played it. 1.3 million KS, impressive :)

It's an "old, old game."  I think this year is actually it's 35th anniversary, we played it as kids back in the early 90's.  It's a very un-Modern game, in the sense that it is relatively rules-heavy and accounting-heavy compared to any game that people would be likely to make nowadays.  But I think that honestly is part of the appeal though.

Obviously the license has been used on a number of computer games throughout the years though too.  I'm going to back that Kickstarter, not that I really play any more, but just to have and to paint.  Just haven't really decided at what level yet...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on August 02, 2019, 02:21:18 pm
There's 15 people at the top $5k level lol. It seems this is a very popular KS.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on August 02, 2019, 02:53:48 pm
There's 15 people at the top $5k level lol. It seems this is a very popular KS.

Yeah, I don't quite understand how people have 5k to drop on a game, but hey, more power to them, haha.

Indeed though, the IP itself is pretty strong.  I can see this Kickstarter coming in at 1.75 million or so, which seems supported by the data (https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/#chart-exp-projection).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on August 02, 2019, 04:17:25 pm
I can see this Kickstarter coming in at 1.75 million or so, which seems supported by the data (https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/#chart-exp-projection).
15 days left and it's at 1.3 million - this thang is going north of 2 million when all said and done. 25% of the final number of backers pledge in the last 24 hours.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on August 02, 2019, 04:46:14 pm
15 days left and it's at 1.3 million - this thang is going north of 2 million when all said and done. 25% of the final number of backers pledge in the last 24 hours.

Yeah, I think that is likely.  But I'm more apt to make conservative estimates, haha.

Anecdotally, I am usually a late backer and would be in this case as well, although probably next week, not in the last 24 hours though.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 15, 2019, 02:25:55 pm
I play the funnest 2 player game I've ever played recently - 7 Wonders. I was skeptical being only 2 player, but it's pretty cool. I lost the first game 54 - 34 ( highest score wins at the end, most victory points ). I annihilated my opponent 2nd game, 84 - 56, hee hee! Anyone else play it? Very fun, not hard to learn, but there is a bit to it. It's essentially resource management style game with some mild cock-blocking. Has a nice mechanic to stay in the game if one player is kicking the shit out of the other. Like for my winning game, he went for another victory condition that supercedes most victory points and he had it, except he couldn't afford the card when it came to him, man I was in the dumps at first until he realized he didn't have enough scratch - so he wasn't looking ahead and took a few cards for victory points in lieu of discarding to get gold which would've game him the game. Pretty cool game.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on October 15, 2019, 03:56:03 pm
7 Wonders has a 2player varient called 7 Wonders dual.

7 Wonders plays pretty well with 3, OK at 4 but not ideal. I don't prefer games that dont allow player interaction, and you only interact with the player to your right and your left. I haven't tried it, but there's an expansion, something to do with Ships, that allows you to trade/etc. with farther away players, which seems like a needed improvement (since the base game allows up to 7 to play, more with expansions).

Its one of the first games that I really played. It can be fun, but its definitely not one that my various groups prefer. I think it gets a bit stale with 4 players and no expansions.

Did I mention I played Wingspan? I feel like I already did, but dont see the post... Its entertaining enough, with a lot of fun mechanics, but again I don't prefer games withotu some interacting with other players, which there isn't any... Hopefully its popularity will mean future expansions that let you foil your opponents!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 15, 2019, 06:11:14 pm
7 Wonders has a 2player varient called 7 Wonders dual.

Oops! Yes, it was 7 Wonders Dual that we played. Sorry, I didn't know much about the game to know we were playing the 2-player only version of it.

... but again I don't prefer games withotu some interacting with other players, which there isn't any...

I've not heard of Wingspan. If you like player interaction, you might like Twilight Imperium IV. That is the funnest game I've played to date, but we did have a full game of 6 players. The political phase of that game puts it into a new class of game altogether, so much fun. I agree about the player interaction aspect you're bringing up. I find the best games are the ones balanced with thematic play - so for games that limit player interaction, for example, that comes across as they made a game without balance in mind and then balanced it with play testing and you get weird stuff like you can't share items with other players in Gloomhaven ( which is simply jacked for a co-op game ). Descent is much better than Gloomhaven imo as the only restrictions are really just mechanics to manage the game ( like taking turns in lieu of simultaneous action, getting knocked down in lieu of dying so you don't have people sitting around waiting for the game to end, etc ).

We're playing Fury of Dracula next Friday night, so I'm boning up on the rules for that one. Dumb name for a game, but it looks pretty cool.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on October 16, 2019, 12:01:06 pm
Yeah we played a few games of Gloomhaven, there are some quirks like "no sharing or trading" that seem ridiculous for a co-op RPG lol.

7 Wonders base game has a 2 player rule set, but it adds a non-player character to be a 3rd player. Dual I guess was redesigned slightly to make it better for 2p.

Twilight Imperium would be awesome, but I don't have anyone that would want to play a game like that with me. Too much time investment for the others I guess. Games that size (gloomhaven, descent, etc.) just aren't on the docket.

Wingspan is a resource management / engine builder. You get a player mat that has different biomes, and your goal is to get points by placing/growing various birds on your mat. The artwork is brilliant and pleasing, and it seems to be a good engine builder with simple mechanics which can lead you down a couple different paths to victory.

My most recent purchase was Ex Libris - you play as the curator of a town library. You compete with other players for the best/rarest books, trying to impress the city inspector who assigns points based on size, stability, variety, rarity, and theme. Basically you collect cards in various ways, arrange them in alphabetical order as best you can. Its pretty fun, a worker replacement game, and the book titles (of where there are some 600+) are pretty witty and brilliant making it fun to read them.

Also recently played Bargain Quest, though only about 15% of it as we ran out of time. You are a shop owner trying to sell wares to heroes, who then go out adventuring with your gear. If they live and kill monsters, you get fame, and they get gold which they can then bring back for more gear. They can also die, in which case you get no fame. The dead heroes are rotated out with new ones. Each turn you compete with the other players to attract 1 hero to your shop. This one was quite fun, and I wish I played more of it. There's something of a bidding phase each turn where you compete mildly to grab the best customer who can buy your stuff, which means plenty of interactions with other players without be overly competitive.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 16, 2019, 01:00:29 pm
Twilight Imperium would be awesome, but I don't have anyone that would want to play a game like that with me. Too much time investment for the others I guess. Games that size (gloomhaven, descent, etc.) just aren't on the docket.

It is definitely the sort of game I want to play, just that I don't have the time or anyone to play it with, haha.

My most recent purchase was Ex Libris - you play as the curator of a town library. You compete with other players for the best/rarest books, trying to impress the city inspector who assigns points based on size, stability, variety, rarity, and theme. Basically you collect cards in various ways, arrange them in alphabetical order as best you can. Its pretty fun, a worker replacement game, and the book titles (of where there are some 600+) are pretty witty and brilliant making it fun to read them.

Sounds like fun.  I think I've recommended them to you before, but you might like Stanislaw Lem's A Perfect Vacuum and Imaginary Magnitudes, one is a book of reviews for books that don't exist and the other is introductions to books that don't exist.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: The P on June 11, 2020, 08:58:44 pm
Board gaming is my primary hobby.  In college in the early 2000s, I played lots of Catan (back then we called it Settlers).  Since then, I've found and acquired a lot more games.  For a while, before work got in the way, I was in a local board game club with over 200 members and a library of about a thousand games.  So my experience is extensive.  Typically I go for games in the "Euro" style, but tastes are ever changing.  These days, I mostly game with my wife, occasionally friends or siblings.  I'll post some games of interest to me as I feel inspired:

Innovation by Carl Chudyk is maybe my all time favorite game.  It is a card game where you are (loosely) building up a civilization from prehistory through the modern age (if you make it that far) represented by, of course, your innovations.  Plays 2-4 players in probably about an hour.  It is an amazing ride of a game.  The game-state is constantly changing.  What's useful to you now could be harmful next turn.  You could be sitting in a comfortable lead one turn, then suddenly everything crashes down around you.  Each of the innovations are, in the right situation, game-breakingly powerful.  Not only is it great fun, but it's usually under $20.  It's also free to play online: innovation.isotropic.org  I'd happily meet up someone is interested.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 11, 2020, 11:25:05 pm
Innovation by Carl Chudyk is maybe my all time favorite game.  It is a card game where you are (loosely) building up a civilization from prehistory through the modern age (if you make it that far) represented by, of course, your innovations.  Plays 2-4 players in probably about an hour.  It is an amazing ride of a game.  The game-state is constantly changing.  What's useful to you now could be harmful next turn.  You could be sitting in a comfortable lead one turn, then suddenly everything crashes down around you.  Each of the innovations are, in the right situation, game-breakingly powerful.  Not only is it great fun, but it's usually under $20.  It's also free to play online: innovation.isotropic.org  I'd happily meet up someone is interested.

This sounds pretty cool, P! I'm interested, but my life is a blast furnace at the moment ( Divorced, new home, radical job risk, oldest son got drivers license - all over last 2 months. Oh, all in the middle of a pandemic, so ... ). I have 4 gaming nights a month with my friends ( on hold now going on 3 months, I'm sad ). We play Descent 2.0, Gloomhaven and then random other stuff like Terra-forming Mars, Twilight Imperium IV, Sythe, Viticulture and Mansions of Madness. Twilight Imperium IV was the most fun with 6 people and not a fan of Mansions, really. Back in the day ( late 70's/80's ) I loved those Avalon Hill games ( Magic Realm, Third Reich, Dune ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: Wilshire on June 16, 2020, 12:40:15 pm
Sounds awesome. I'd probably be up for a round! Would be fun to try it out.

TH: That's a sweet set of games. Gloomhaven is something I wish I could play but dont have the friends to play it. Terraforming Mars is amazing, Sythe is a ton of fun, and I've won my fair share of Viticulture games.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 16, 2020, 05:58:50 pm
Sounds awesome. I'd probably be up for a round! Would be fun to try it out.

TH: That's a sweet set of games. Gloomhaven is something I wish I could play but dont have the friends to play it. Terraforming Mars is amazing, Sythe is a ton of fun, and I've won my fair share of Viticulture games.

Worker Placement games brings out the best in people ( e.g. Viticulture ). I was on my best behavior with ( at the time ) new group of gamers I hooked up with until we played Viticulture and then the real TaoHorror stood up and they got me in the RAW ( fuck you, no fuck you, no fuck you! ).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: The P on June 16, 2020, 08:05:28 pm
Gloomhaven is great.  I had grand ideas for it, but the people and opportunities for it are inconsistent.  It works well solo (if you are into that; I am not much, but I will for gloomhaven).  I get my wife to play, which surprisingly, she enjoys.
I think they are making it digital on steam.

I like terraforming mars pretty well, scythe, too.  I played Twilight Imperium IV once.  I could see myself liking it again, but it's such a long game.  I'm more inclined to play 3 two-hour games than one 6+.  I have a friend who recently got viticulture, but the pandemic hit.  We'll play it some day.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on June 17, 2020, 02:10:41 am
I did not like Gloomhaven the first time I played, but I respected the gaming tastes of my friends, so stuck with it and so happy I did - very very fun game with great mechanics. You'll like Viticulture, another winner - but again, forewarned, it can piss ya off. I'm "ok" with Terraforming Mars - it's very well done, complex hard to learn/play game ( at least for me ), but honestly with the mild cock-blocking, it's seems like a sexy game of chess given the low level of interpersonal dynamics, just seems like the worst of both worker placement and engine building, not the best of each. But I need to play it more, give it a chance. I enjoy Sythe much more.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: The P on June 23, 2020, 09:22:28 pm
There is a series of games I am quite enamored of, known as Pax games.  They are, for the most part, a production of Sierra Madre Games, and designed and/or devoloped by one Phil Eklund.  At one point they were described in contrast to wargames.  In wargames, typically, the players are the great generals or factions moving their pawns on the map to achieve victory.  Whereas in a Pax game, "the players are the pawns."  Meaning your goal is to leach on to the strong faction of the moment and hopefully come out ahead when the power structure tumbles.  More or less.

Pax Porfiriana The first of this line.  It takes place during the final years of Porfiro Diaz's leadership of Mexico.  Players are Hacendados (powerful landowners of the time) building their own wealth while destroying others, dealing in extortion, lawsuits, banditry, revolution.  Victory comes in several guises; being named Porfiro's successor, staging a military coup, leading the revolution, or becoming the governor of Mexico under U.S. control.

Pax Pamir Afghanistan circa 1830-1885, aka the Great Game.  Britain is worried Russia is seeking access to its interests in India.  Russia is maybe just concerned about encroaching British imperialism.  Afghani nationals are seeking cohesion after the fall of the Durrani Empire.  Players are vague tribal leaders currying favor with one of the three factions, building armies, constructing roads.  And also spying, betraying, taxing, holding hostage whenever it's beneficial.  And changing loyalties when things start to go south, of course.  There is a recent second edition of this, that is easier to learn/play than the original.

Pax Renaissance This is my favorite.  It covers the full scope of the Renaissance.  Players are financial powers using their economic influence to drive the powers of the region.  Complete with coronations, peasant revolts, conspiracies, trade fairs, piracy, religious wars (Reformation, Crusades, Jihads).  Victory is had any number of ways.  Having the most influence in royal courts, supporting a sufficiency of exploration and trade, religious influence (if some religion comes to enough power of the region), amassing legal power in free states, or just plaing supporting the arts.  It's a wild sandbox of a game, but oddly, can be played in about an hour, once you wrap your head around it.  This one also has a second edition being made, but looks like it mostly just cleans up some of the artwork and layout.

Pax Emancipation Easily the largest in scope, it covers the global attempt to end slavery from 1776 to 1917 (or something like that).  It is kind of a pseudo-cooperative game.  It can be played fully cooperative, or even solo.  The game takes as its conceit that the driving force behind this global emancipation arose from Enlightenment ideas.  As such, players are all Western entities (British Parliament, Evangelical Missionaries, and Philanthropists), but the game gives plenty of credit to Eastern leaders and ideas as well.  So you are all working towards ending slavery, but in the end, you want the world to be bent towards your particular idea of what that actually means.  Slaves are freed, slave ships are sunk, laws are passed, revolutions abound.

Pax Transhumanity This is the only one that is not historical.  It is the near future, and players are funding and commercializing various scientific and social breakthroughs to bring humanity to a new era.   Your goal is to bring about the future of humanity as you wish to see it, be it transbiological, computing, space-faring, etc.

There is also a Pax Viking that is currently getting made, but all I know about it is that it has to do with the Vikings and Sweden.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on September 15, 2020, 02:21:57 pm
Anyone else remember this old game?  Seems they are up to something soon.

(https://i.imgur.com/6vEsfWV.png)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on September 22, 2020, 04:41:33 pm
HeroQuest now out for Crowfunding: https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

Looks pretty cool, even if just for the nostalgia value.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 13, 2020, 07:01:12 pm
So, post-Hurricane Delta, we were out of power for almost 4 days.  So I dug out some old games I had.  We played Risk 2110 and the old (~2000) version of Cosmic Encounters.  Also, a couple version of Trivial Pursuit.  But now the kids are likely going to be glued back on some screens, haha.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: mrganondorf on October 26, 2020, 02:23:48 am
HeroQuest now out for Crowfunding: https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

Looks pretty cool, even if just for the nostalgia value.

Hell yeah!  Some day I going to swing by your neck of the woods, H, and we should play!  I love HeroQuest!!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 27, 2020, 12:48:37 am
HeroQuest now out for Crowfunding: https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

Looks pretty cool, even if just for the nostalgia value.

Hell yeah!  Some day I going to swing by your neck of the woods, H, and we should play!  I love HeroQuest!!

+1
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 27, 2020, 12:34:07 pm
Ha, unfortunately, the price is just a bit too rich for my blood at the moment...
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: mrganondorf on October 29, 2020, 04:19:50 pm
Ha, unfortunately, the price is just a bit too rich for my blood at the moment...

https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

Just saw the price - oh well, I still have the original.  A bit beat up but I think it's all there.

Looks like TaoHorror is going to join us H!
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: TaoHorror on October 29, 2020, 07:28:53 pm
Ha, unfortunately, the price is just a bit too rich for my blood at the moment...

https://hasbropulse.com/products/heroquest-game-system

Just saw the price - oh well, I still have the original.  A bit beat up but I think it's all there.

Looks like TaoHorror is going to join us H!

You betcha, just a plane ticket away to some killer board gaming :)
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on October 30, 2020, 11:34:56 am
Ha, I'd bet my old copy is probably still at my old house, somewhere.  Although, no idea how complete it might (or might not) be.

Maybe one day we can meet up near Pensacola, if we ever make it out that way again, seems like it might be almost half-way for both of us, TH.
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: H on December 30, 2020, 06:23:27 pm
I've constantly forgotten to get it on sale, but this time I actually remembered: Tabletop Simulator (https://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator/).  Maybe at some point we could try to get some games on there (although at the moment I am definitely short on time).
Title: Re: Board Games and Miniatures
Post by: The P on December 31, 2020, 05:27:58 pm
My intent is to buy it tonight, H!  Provided I don't forget.